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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00022245223 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/heroesofairseaOOhorn 


HEROES    OF   AIR 
AND  SEA 


By 
Isabel  Hornibrook 


Published  by 

David  C.  Cook  Publishing  Co. 

Elgin,  Illinois 


Copyright,  1913, 

By  David  C.  Cook  Publishing  Co. 

Elgin,  Illinois. 


HEROES  OF  AIR  AND  SEA 


By  ISABEL  HORNIBROOK 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Boy  Golfer. 


4  4  TV  7 ELL,  this  is  the  slowest  place  that  I  was  ever 
^^  in.  Is  there  anything  at  all  to  be  done  here?" 
Blair  Hammond,  aged  fifteen,  seated  himself 
despondently  upon  a  low  stone  wall  bordering  a  highway 
of  Cape  Ann,  and  emitted  a  whistle,  drawn-out  and  dis- 
mal, which  showed  him  to  have  entered  upon  the  third 
degree  of  boredom. 

"  I'd  put  a  patent  on  that  whistle,  lad,  if  I  were  you ! 
It's  quite  new  and  original  in  these  parts,"  drawled  the 
person  addressed,  a  weather-beaten  old  seaman,  disdain- 
ing a  direct  answer  to  the  question  put  to  him. 

"  Well !  it  is  a  dead  place,"  urged  the  boy,  his  discon- 
tented gaze  roving  over  stretches  of  pasture  and  wood- 
land girdled  by  sea,  to  a  more  appreciative  eye  teeming 
with  life  and  beauty.  "  There  doesn't  seem  to  be  any- 
thing exciting  going  on." 

"  What  did  you  expect  to  find  here — at  Myrtle  Cove  ? 
A  sort  of  Wonderland,  where  you  could  '  shoot  the 
chutes  '  and  fly  around  in  mock  airships,  until  you'd  feel 
as  if  your  heels  had  changed  places  with  your  head — is 
that  the  sort  of  thing  you're  pining  for,  eh,  lad?"  inquired 
the  elderly  sailor. 

Blair  had  a  suspicion  that  this  gray-bearded  sea  captain 
— whose  voice  had  the  habitual,  though  kindly,  bluster  of  a 

3 


4  HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA. 

man  who  has  often  shouted  orders  to  his  crew  with  the 
sea  slapping  him  in  the  face  and  drowning  his  words — 
was  secretly  laughing  at  him  for  his  moping  self-pity. 
But  he  remembered  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  rich  bank 
director ;  that  his  father  could  buy  up  a  dozen  such  ves- 
sels as  this  old  man  had  commanded;  so  he  answered 
with  an  important  air  of  knowing  the  world  better  than 
the  graybeard: 

"  I  don't  want  a  '  Wonderland,'  but  other  years  we — 
father,  mother,  my  sister  and  I — have  gone  to  a  fine  shore 
resort  and  stayed  at  a  big  hotel  where  there  was  an  en- 
tertainment every  evening,  with  yacht  races  in  the  day- 
time, and  other  fun  !  Last  spring  my  sister  was  ill,  the 
doctor  advised  my  father  to  bring  her  to  Cape  Ann — 
to  a  quiet  spot — so  he  took  that  villa  back  there  on  Surf 
Avenue."  The  boy  nodded  over  his  shoulder  at  the  gables 
of  a  summer  home  rising  above  an  intervening  stretch  of 
woodland.  "  But  there's  no  excitement  of  any  kind  here; 
it  makes  me  tired." 

Repeating  the  whistle  of  self-pity,  Blair  dropped  his 
chin  dejectedly  into  the  collar  of  his  sweater;  a  startling 
sweater  it  was,  very  long,  of  the  lightest,  finest  wool  and 
the  most  vivid  crimson  hue. 

"  It  depends  upon  what  you  call  '  excitement '  whether 
there's  any  here,  or  not,"  remarked  the  elderly  sailor. 
"  For  instance,  out  there  at  the  ocean  breakwater  which 
Uncle  Sam  is  building  two  miles  off  shore,  there  are  no 
less  than  fourteen  divers  at  work  to-day  who  find  life 
exciting  enough,  because  every  time  that  they  go  down 
under  the  sea  there  is  the  possibility  that  they  may  never 
see  the  sun  again.  Ever  see  a  diver  go  down  at  close 
quarters,  lad?" 

"No;  I  guess  I'm  not  interested  in  seeing  divers  go 
down.     What  I  want  to  see  is  an  aviator  go  up!" 

For  the  first  time  during  the  conversation  the  boy's 
moping  eyes  sparkled  with  life. 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  5 

"  Ah  !  Now  you're  talking,"  exclaimed  the  old  man 
vivaciously.  "  I  want  to  see  a  man-bird  myself.  I've 
fought  the  sea  at  its  wildest  a  hundred  times  and  got  the 
better  of  it,"  he  added  in  a  gust  of  energy,  speaking  more 
to  himself  than  to  his  listener.  "  But  what  I  want  to  see 
is  the  man  who  has  conquered  the  air  !" 

"  Who  knows  but  we  may  get  a  chance  to  see  an  aviator 
making  a  flight  around  this  Cape  one  of  these  fine  summer 
days?"  he  went  on  presently.  "In  the  meantime,  can't 
you  hunt  up  some  pastime,  lad?  It  seems  to  me  that,  as 
we  sailors  say,  '  you're  in  everybody's  mess  and  nobody's 
watch,'  just  now;  which  means  that  you  have  nothing 
in  particular  to  do.     Don't  you  row  and  swim?" 

"  I  do,  some." 

Blair's  listless  answer  betrayed  to  the  shrewd  old  sea- 
fighter  that  the  boy  had,  up  to  the  present,  loved  surface 
pleasure  so  much  as  even  to  shun  the  work  necessary  to 
perfect  himself  in  these  sports.  "  I  play  golf  a  little," 
added  the  lad  presently.  "  My  uncle  is  a  champion  golfer 
and  he  taught  me.  He  said  that  it  took  years  to  make  a 
player  and  I  might  as  well  begin  young.  My  golf-bag  is 
in  the  field  there,"  glancing  down  at  a  leather  case  re- 
posing on  the  grass  behind  him.  "  Somebody  told  father 
that  there  were  golf  links  here.     Where  are  they?" 

"  Over  there !"  The  seaman  pointed  toward  a  broad 
expanse  of  pasture-land  sloping  upward  in  a  gentle  hill, 
from  whose  crest  came  distant  sounds  of  drilling  and 
hammering,  with  the  faint  rattle  of  a  hoisting  engine — 
all  the  noises  of  a  busy  granite  quarry. 

"  Pshaw !  those  granite  quarries  spoil  the  Cape," 
grumbled  the  boy,  gazing  off  at  a  barely  visible  quarry 
engine  house  plumed  with  dark  smoke. 

"  Some  of  the  finest  buildings  in  Massachusetts  have 
come  out  of  them  just  the  same,"  was  the  reproving  re- 
joinder. "  I  wouldn't  play  golf  on  those  links  to-day, 
if  I  were  you,  my  lad,"  suggested  the  old  man,  as  Blair 


6  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

jumped  into  the  field,  picked  up  his  golf-bag  with  its 
assortment  of  clubs,  and  vaulted  back  into  the  road,  show- 
ing an  agility  in  bright  contrast  to  his  "  dumpish  "  mood. 
"  The  ground  is  rough ;  nobody  has  played  on  it  since  the 
Myrtle  Cove  hotel  was  burned  down  six  weeks  ago.  And 
old  man  Jewett  has  been  pasturing  his  cows  on  the  upper 
end  for  the  past  few  days.  I  hear  there's  a  young  bull 
among  them  that's  quite  a  sprinter." 

"  If  he's  young  I  guess  I  could  scare  him  off  with  a 
golf-stick,"  Blair's  laugh  had  the  ring  of  ignorance,  as  he 
slipped  the  strap  of  his  golf-bag  over  his  shoulder.  "  But 
I  must  find  somebody  to  act  '  caddy '  for  me.  Could  you?" 
He  turned  to  a  sturdy-looking  boy,  five  months  younger 
than  himself,  who  came  strolling  up. 

The  Cape  boy  shook  his  head. 

"  No,  I've  got  to  do  some  errands  for  Captain  Andy — 
my  grandfather,  I  mean,"  he  answered,  nodding  toward 
the  old  man. 

"  They  call  me  '  Captain  Andy '  hereabouts ;  my  name  is 
Andrew  Davis,"  explained  the  seaman.  "  This  is  my 
grandson,  Quintin  Davis,  popularly  known  as  Quin ;  he 
has  been  my  right  hand  since  the  main  boom  of  my  vessel 
fell  on  me  in  a  storm  a  few  months  ago  and  broke  my 
arm  and  leg.  Take  my  advice  and  don't  go  over  to  the 
golf  links,  lad.  They  say  that  young  bull  chased  an 
Italian  quarryman  day  before  yesterday,  who  came  near 
jumping  down  into  a  quarry  pit  to  escape  him,  but  saved 
himself  by  hopping  onto  a  moving  stone-car  instead.  And 
that  flaming  sweater  of  yours  might  get  on  the  animal's 
nerves." 

"  Oh,  I  guess  the  Italian  was  '  stretching  it '  a  little;  his 
doesn't  sound  like  a  real  bull  story."  Blair  laughed,  still 
obstinately  moving  off,  with  his  golf-bag  under  his  arm. 

The  boy  had  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  Captain  Andrew 
had  formed  a  poor  opinion  of  him  during  their  brief  con- 
versation.    He  felt  that  now  was  his  opportunity  to  prove 


HEROES   OF  AIR   AND   SEA.  7 

to  the  old  man  and  the  strange  boy  that  this  "  dead " 
place  held  no  danger  big  enough  to  scare  him. 

Captain  Andy  looked  musingly  after  him  as  he  walked 
away. 

"  That  city  boy  is  smart  enough,  Quin,"  he  said.  "  And 
he's  built  to  be  as  active  as  they  make  'em.  The  trouble 
with  him  is  he's  been  reared  in  a  flowerpot !  Well,  as  we 
can't  head  him  off  from  playing  golf,  let  us  stroll  round  by 
the  lane  that  skirts  the  links  to  Jewett's  farm;  I'll  give 
Sam  Jewett  a  piece  of  my  mind  about  keeping  that  young 
bull  out  there,  and  get  him  to  send  out  a  farm  hand,  to  see 
that  that  obstinate  lad  doesn't  come  to  harm."  The  old 
man  moved  his  right  side  stiffly  as  he  spoke.  "  Then  we'll 
go  on  to  the  quarry  and  I'll  telephone  from  there  to  Mr. 
Hammond  telling  him  that  his  son  has  not  brought  quite 
the  right  brand  of  daring  to  the  Cape." 

Meanwhile,  Blair  had  reached  the  mound  which  formed 
the  first  "  tee  "  at  the  starting  point  of  the  golf  links. 

Taking  a  handful  of  sand  from  the  heap  placed  there 
for  former  players,  he  set  the  hard  little  golf-ball  on  it, 
and  letting  swing  with  his  "  driver  "  sent  the  ball  a  hun- 
dred yards  over  the  rough  course. 

"  Pretty  good  !"  he  murmured  to  himself.  "  Two  more 
drives  will  land  in  the  '  putting  green,'  near  the  first  hole." 

He  started  and  at  the  same  time  from  that  distant 
engine  house  on  the  crest  of  the  hill  came  a  loud  shrill 
whistle  announcing  to  the  quarrymen  that  their  day's 
work  was  over,  this  being  Saturday  afternoon. 

Blair  had  forgotten  the  disfiguring  quarries,  and 
Farmer  Jewett's  sprinting  young  bull,  as  he  picked  up  his 
bag  of  clubs  and  followed  the  ball. 

Becoming  absorbed  in  his  play,  he  was  driving  for  the 
fifth  hole  when  another  ear-splitting  whistle  startled  him; 
this  time  it  came  from  a  red-funneled  tugboat  lying  be- 
side a  quarry  pier  jutting  out  into  the  sea,  to  which  the 
other  side  of  the  hill  sloped  down. 


8  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA. 

"Pshaw!  that  whistle  made  me  jump,"  ejaculated  the 
boy,  suddenly  awakening  to  the  fact  that  there  was  not 
a  human  being  in  sight,  that  the  noises  in  the  quarry, 
including  the  friendly  cackle  of  the  hoisting  engine,  had 
ceased,  and  that  he  was  between  Jewett's  cows  and  that 
granite  quarry. 

Among  the  cattle  there  was  one  spectator  apparently 
so  deeply  interested  in  Blair's  play  that  he  seemed  am- 
bitious of  becoming  a  golfer  himself;  this  was  a  small, 
wiry  young  bull  whose  distant  salmon-colored  hide  shone 
in  the  sun  like  pink  satin. 

"  I  wish  he  wouldn't  look  at  me  so ;  it — it  brings  the 
gooseflesh,"  gurgled  the  boy,  conscious  of  a  corresponding 
wish  that  he  had  stayed  with  Captain  Andy  and  his 
grandson. 

Bravely  he  placed  his  ball  on  the  fourth  "  tee,"  a  shaggy 
mound,  and  made  a  wabbly  drive  at  it  with  his  driver. 
At  the  same  instant  there  was  a  distant,  menacing  bellow. 
That  salmon-colored  young  bull  had  become  suddenly 
wrathful  at  sight  of  the  crimson  sweater  elevated  on  the 
mound. 

"I  declare!  He's  coming  for  me;  c-coming  at  a  clip!" 
The  panic-stricken  words  kicked  in  Blair's  throat.  He 
had  a  momentary  wild  idea  of  facing  that  angry  quadru- 
ped with  a  golf-club.  But  the  resolution  was  blown  off 
like  a  bubble  by  his  terrified  breath. 

Down  went  the  "  driver '"  into  the  grass  beside  its 
brother  clubs.  Blair  fled  for  his  life  in  the  direction  of 
the  despised  quarry — toward  that  gray  engine-house — the 
only  visible  refuge. 

Its  door  was  open.  For  the  engineer,  having  dumped 
his  fire  and  drawn  off  the  water  from  the  boiler,  had 
stepped  out  to  gossip  in  a  neighboring  shed,  while  waiting 
for  that  boiler  to  cool  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to  do  a 
Saturday  afternoon's  cleaning  on  it  and  his  engine. 

Fighting  off  a  paralysis  of  terror,  Blair  made  for  that 


BLAIR    FLED    TOWARD    THE    ENGINE    HOUSE. 
9 


10'  HEROES   OF   AIR   AND   SEA. 

open  door  in  an  agony  which  made  him  see  two  or  three 
gray  engine-sheds  instead  of  one. 

His  tongue  lolled  like  that  of  his  bovine  pursuer  as  he 
darted  in.  There  was  no  time  to  close  the  rude  plank 
door  and  fumble  for  a  bolt  in  this  unknown  place.  A 
half-glance  over  his  shoulder  showed  the  bull  but  twenty 
yards  behind  him,  its  tail  lashing  its  thin,  heaving  sides 
as  it  charged  ferociously  with  lowered  head  for  that  flam- 
ing red  sweater  which  aroused  its  indignation,  being  the 
opposite  color  to  the  green  of  the  pasture  on  which  it  fed. 

At  the  sight  Blair  staggered.  His  eyes  frantically 
searched  the  engine-house  for  any  barricade  against  the 
enemy.  The  low  hoisting  engine,  with  its  spool-like 
drums  which  worked  the  derricks  that  hoisted  stone, 
offered  no  barrier  should  the  bull  pursue  him  into  the  shed. 
The  furious  animal  might  only  crowd  and  corner  him. 

Sick  with  horror,  the  boy  who  only  half  an  hour  before 
had  complained  petulantly  because  he  missed  a  few  diver- 
sions, saw  that  he  had  only  run  into  a  trap.  He  could 
almost  feel  that  young  bull's  horns  making  their  first  dead- 
ly onslaught  on  his  back. 

But,  as  Captain  Andy  had  said,  he  was  quick-witted. 
In  the  shadows  of  the  engine-house  loomed  the  tall  up- 
right boiler,  like  an  ebony  pillar.  The  door  of  its  fire- 
box sagged  open,  showing  only  dead  ashes  where  the 
engineer  had  drawn  his  fire. 

Blair's  dizzy  eyes  saw  two  shining  black  boilers.  His 
breath  coming  in  whistling  gasps,  he  flung  himself  at  one 
of  them;  it  was  the  solid  one,  not  the  double  which  his 
imagination  provided. 

Like  a  wireless  message  in  a  fog,  the  blurred  idea  darted 
through  him  that  his  only  way  of  escape  was  to  climb  to 
the  top  of  that  nine-foot  boiler. 

Placing  one  foot  on  a  projection  called  the  "  mud-cock," 
just  above  the  still  hot  bed-plate,  he  reached  up  and 
grasped  the  brass  rods  of  the  water  gauge. 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA.  11 

Drawing  himself  up  desperately,  he  managed  to  get  his 
left  foot  on  another  projection,  the  hand-hole  cover,  and 
thence,  with  the  help  of  a  protruding  valve  or  two,  to 
reach  the  dome  of  the  boiler  where,  curling  his  legs  up, 
he  twined  himself  round  the  steel  chimney,  reckless  of 
blistering  hands. 

The  bull,  pursuing  him  into  the  engine-house,  butted  that 
warm  bed-plate  with  his  horns.  But  the  cast  iron  base 
of  the  steel  boiler,  firmly  bolted  to  the  ground,  did  not 
tremble;  and  the  angry  quadruped  backing  off  from  it, 
stood  blocking  the  narrow  doorway,  his  tail  switching  his 
salmon-colored  sides,  which  heaved  with  a  low,  baffled 
bellow. 

"  You  did — didn't  get — me  !"  An  hysterical  sound,  half 
a  laugh  and  half  a  scream  bubbled  up  from  the  depths  of 
mortal  fear  in  Blair,  which  had  been  stirred  for  the  first 
time.  "  This — old — boiler — is  too  m-much  for  you  !" 
panted  the  boy,  breathing  defiance  at  the  enemy  while  his 
crimson  arms  hugged  the  steel  .smokestack  as  if  it  were 
the  warm  neck  of  a  protector.  Blair's  laugh  was  more 
pronounced  this  time.  "  I  declare  this  is  worse  than  be- 
ing treed  by  a  moose." 


**^S*1^~ 


CHAPTER  II. 
The  Raft. 

i  i  I  ""HIS  is  worse  than  being  treed  by  a  moose;  I — I 
^  didn't  bargain  for  this  kind  of  excitement !" 
panted  Blair  breathlessly,  as  he  hugged  the  steel 
chimney  of  the  boiler  in  that  quarry  engine-house,  and 
hurled  defiance  at  the  bull  which  still  blocked  the  narrow 
doorway. 

The  boy  was  shaking  all  over  from  terror  at  his  narrow 
escape. 

"  I  wonder  if  he  means  to  '  stick  me  out ' ;  to  keep  me 
here  till  midnight?"  he  speculated.  For  that  angry  young 
bull  showed  no  intention  of  retreating.  Once  and  again 
he  butted  the  base  of  the  boiler  with  baffled  horns,  sending 
a  gust  of  shudders  down  Blair's  backbone. 

But  the  quarry  boiler  was  an  impregnable  fortress. 

"  You  can  sharpen  your  horns  on  it  all  day,  old  fellow," 
laughed  the  boy,  on  whom  the  comical  aspect  of  the  situa- 
tion was  dawning,  with  returning  breath  and  the  sense  of 
safety. 

"  This  isn't  the  most  comfortable  perch  in  the  world, 
but  it  isn't  hot  enough  to  burn  me  through  my  clothing; 
so  I  guess  I  can  tire  you  out."  In  the  great  relief  from 
danger  Blair  hardly  felt  the  trifling  blisters  on  his  hands 
from  their  contact  with  the  still  hot  steel  in  his  climb. 

"  I  wonder  whether  the  quarry  engineer  has  gone  home 
or  if  he'll  be  coming  back  here?"  pondered  the  boyish 
refugee;  "I'm  beginning  to  get  kinks  in  my  limbs." 

Almost  immediately  he  gave  a  great  gasp  of  mingled 
relief  and  apprehension.  Over  the  bull's  back  he  saw 
through  the  doorway  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  man 

12 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  13 

in  black  linens,  who  threw  up  his  hands  with  an  amazed 
cry  as  he  saw  the  horned  besieger  blocking  the  threshold 
of  his  engine-house. 

The  quarry  engineer,  for  it  was  he,  disappeared  like 
lightning,  to  reappear  almost  as  speedily  armed  with  a 
long  pole,  and  accompanied  by  a  brawny-armed  quarry 
blacksmith  who  carried  as  weapon  a  tool  taken  from  his 
forging  fire. 

The  engineer  attacked  the  bull  from  behind  with  his 
pole,  and  as  the  belligerent  young  animal  turned  upon 
him,  it  was  met  by  the  blacksmith  with  his  tool.  Before 
the  hot  iron  actually  touched  him,  however,  the  bull, 
realizing  that  this  kind  of  warfare  was  not  to  his  taste, 
swerved  nimbly  and  beat  a  retreat  to  his  pasture. 

The  engineer  sprang  into  the  engine-house  and  stared 
aloft  in  comical  amazement  at  the  boy  in  the  vivid  sweater 
perched  upon  the  dome  of  the  black  boiler,  affectionately 
embracing  its  half-cool  chimney. 

"  So  the  bull  chased  you  in  here,  did  he?"  laughed  the 
man  in  black  linens.  "  And  you  had  to  climb  the  boiler 
to  escape  him ;  'twas  a  good  thing  for  you  it  wasn't  very 
hot.  Here,  let  me  help  you  down;  I  guess  you've  got 
kinks  in  your  backbone!" 

Blair  was  eagerly  preparing  to  descend  when  his  eyes, 
which  had  not  lost  the  wildness  of  fear,  dilated  suddenly; 
his  face  took  on  the  hue  of  his  sweater:  at  the  engine- 
house  doorway  were  two  other  spectators,  old  Captain 
Andy,  whose  warnings  he  had  disregarded,  and  his  grand- 
son, Quintin. 

"  Hullo  !  my  lad,  I  guess  you'd  have  done  better  to  have 
minded  me,"  breezed  the  old  sea-captain,  as  the  boiler 
refugee  with  the  engineer's  help  jumped  to  the  ground. 
"  I  came  up  here  to  the  quarry  on  purpose  to  telephone  to 
your  father.  It  was  well  for  you  that  the  engineer  had 
dumped  his  fire  and  drew  off  the  water  from  his  boiler 
directly  after  sounding  the  steam-whistle  for  work  to  stop." 


14  HEROES    OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

"  Well !  I've  heard  of  many  queer  escapes,  but  climbing 
a  quarry  boiler  to  avoid  an  angry  bull  beats  'em  all,  up 
to  date,"  exclaimed  that  young  engineer,  slapping  his  side, 
and  bursting  into  a  roar  of  laughter — for  he  was  little 
more  than  a  boy  himself. 

Captain  Andy's  fourteen-year-old  grandson  Quintin 
whom  Blair  had  condescendingly  invited  to  act  as  "  caddy  " 
for  him  while  he  played  golf,  joined  in  the  laugh.  So 
did  the  brawny  blacksmith. 

The  ears  of  the  rescued  lad  tingled.  Only  an  hour  ago 
he  had  regarded  himself — boy,  though  he  was — as  of  con- 
siderable importance  in  this  "  slow "  place.  Now,  here 
were  two  quarry  workmen  and  the  strange  Cape  boy  all 
laughing  boisterously  at  the  predicament  in  which  his  own 
foolhardiness  had  landed  him. 

But  the  danger  through  which  Blair  had  just  passed 
was  like  a  threshing-mill :  it  had  blown  away  the  chaff  of 
self-consequence  and  discontent,  freeing  the  fine  grain,  of 
real  boyhood.  He  pulled  himself  together  and  joined 
shakily  in  the  mirth. 

"  I  guess  I  got  only  what  was  c-coming  to  me  for  not 
taking  your  advice,"  he  stammered  when  the  mirth  sub- 
sided, looking  respectfully  at  Captain  Andrew.  "  I'll  be 
wiser  next  time,  Captain." 

Captain  Andy's  old  eyes  twinkled.  He  loved  all  boys. 
Secretly  he  had  been  setting  this  one  down  as  a  "  sissy  " 
and  "  flowerpot  fellow."  Now  he  acknowledged  the  real 
boy.  None  but  a  real  boy  could  take  discomfiture  like 
that ! 

He  laid  his  hand,  big  and  warm,  on  Blair's  shoulder. 

"  You're  not  a  laughing-stock,  my  lad,"  he  said ;  "  far 
from  it !  You  kept  your  nerve  and  showed  presence  of 
mind  in  climbing  that  boiler  to  save  yourself,  when  per- 
sons older  than  you  are  might  have  been  too  fogged  with 
fear  to  think  of  it.  Otherwise,  the  bull  would  have  at- 
tacked   you    here    in    the    engine-house.       Let    me    see 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA.  15 

your  hands ;   oh  !    they're  not  burned  much   to  speak  of." 

"  But — "  he  bent  down  to  Blair's  ear,  "  in  future,  lad, 
don't  go  about  blowing  the  smoke  of  your  little  troubles 
into  other  people's  nostrils — it's  not  manly;  nor  doing 
something  foolhardy  to  offset  it — that's  not  courage ! 
Now,  Quin  and  I  will  cruise  along  home  with  you  by  a 
path  that  doesn't  lead  through  the  golf  links." 

Ten  minutes  later  as  the  trio  were  strolling  toward 
Blair's  summer  home  together,  Captain  Andrew  turned 
to  the  city  boy : 

"  If  you're  hard  up  for  amusement,"  he  said,  "  why  don't 
you  take  a  trip  with  me  to  that  Government  breakwater 
of  which  I  was  telling  you,  which  is  being  built  to  create  a 
safe  harbor  for  ships,  and  see  those  fourteen  divers  at 
work.  The  '  Etna,'  that  tugboat  which  is  lying  by  the 
quarry  pier  now,  will  be  going  out  there  on  Monday,  tow- 
ing the  flat  scow  laden  with  stone  for  the  breakwater. 
My  son  has  command  of  the  '  Etna ' ;  no  not  Quintin's 
father,"  hastily;  "  Quin's  father  was  drowned  when  he  was 
a  small  boy." 

"  I'd  like  to  go  very  much,"  Blair's  answer  showed  more 
interest  in  amphibious  divers  than  he  had  manifested  an 
hour  ago;  he  had  learned  the  great  pain  of  danger,  and 
he  began  to  feel  a  respect  for  anyone  who  necessarily 
faced  it  in  the  service  of  his  fellow  men. 

But  he  was  quite  unprepared  for  the  wonder  of  the 
sight  which  greeted  him  when  on  the  following  Monday 
he  stood  on  the  "  Etna's  "  deck  as  the  tugboat  lay  moored 
beside  that  growing  ocean  breakwater. 

The  August  sea  was  so  perfectly  calm  and  clear  that 
Blair,  peering  into  it,  could  see  as  if  he  were  looking  down 
fifty  feet  through  tier  after  tier  of  green  glass,  over  a 
dozen  strange  figures  moving  round  upon  the  sea-bed,  like 
goblins  of  the  deep ! 

Grotesque,  bulky,  round-headed  figures  they  appeared 
to  be.     And  they  worked  as  busily  as  any  colony  of  bea- 


16  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

vers  building  a  dam  under  water,  as  they  moved  great  rocks 
down  there  in  the  greenish  twilight  beneath  the  ocean,  and 
piled  them  up  at  the  base  of  the  breakwater. 

A  gust  of  feeling  like  a  breeze  from  a  strange  climate 
swept  over  Blair  at  the  sight,  stirring  even  his  hair.  He 
knew  that  these  men  were  the  ocean  divers,  and  that  they 
were  not  toiling  for  their  own  ends,  but  building  up  a 
future  protection  for  storm-tossed  vessels,  threatened  with 
destruction  by  the  sea. 

"  I  declare  !  it  makes  one  feel  more  of  a  man  even  to 
watch  them,"  he  blurted  out  involuntarily  to  Quintin 
Davis,  who  stood  by  him. 

These  two  boys  who  had  known  each  other  only  about 
forty-eight  hours,  were  chums  already.  There  had  been  a 
little  diffidence  between  them  at  first,  which  was  blown 
away  on  the  trip  out,  when  Quin  startled  Blair  by  tiptoe- 
ing up  behind  him  and  speaking  into  his  ear  through  the 
tugboat's  megaphone,  which  made  his  tones  like  the  voices 
of  three  giants  melted  into  one,  asking  him  "  whether 
he  had  recovered  from  his  bull-scare  yet?" 

Blair  retaliated  by  wresting  the  huge  trumpet  from  him 
and  chasing  him  round  the  deck  with  it.  After  which,  the 
ice  having  been  effectually  broken,  they  amused  them- 
selves by  hailing  every  passing  fishing  vessel  and  lumber- 
ing coaster  through  the  megaphone,  with  bantering 
salutations. 

Now,  as  they  stood  watching  these  submarine  divers 
through  the  glassy  sea,  Quin  plucked  at  the  sleeve  of 
Blair's  crimson  sweater. 

"  Uncle  Jim  is  going  down  himself  to-day !"  he  ex- 
claimed excitedly,  pointing  to  the  master  of  the  tugboat 
who  was  known  ashore  and  afloat  as  "  Captain  Jim,"  to 
distinguish  him  from  his  father,  Captain  Andrew  Davis. 
"  As  the  '  Etna's  '  captain,  Uncle  Jim  has  to  practice  div- 
ing; he  has  to  go  down  to  see  about  the  placing  of  the 
stone  which  is  lowered  to  the  breakwater." 


f^Ui»V 


DON  T     l'OU     WANT    TO    SEE     MY    TENDER     MAKE 
MY    TOILET?"    ASKED    CAPTAIN    JIM. 
17 


18  HEROES   OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

"  He's  going  to  use  his  diver's  raft,  too,"  Quintin  went 
on,  "  because  the  sea  is  so  calm  and  he  wants  to  move 
from  point  to  point  to  inspect  some  work  which  has  been 
done  by  the  other  divers.  Oh  !  wouldn't  it  be  gr-reat  if 
he'd  take  us  out  on  the  raft  with  him?" 

"  'Twould  be  immense  !"  Blair  was  feeling  that  not  all 
the  entertainments  he  had  ever  known  at  fashionable  sea- 
side resorts  could  compare  for  excitement  with  the  thrill 
of  watching  these  heroes  of  the  deep  at  their  unselfish 
work.  Already,  it  had  made  him  want  to  be  "  more  of  a 
man,"  less  easy-going  and  less  selfish. 

"  Well,  as  a  rule  I  don't  take  passengers  with  me,  but 
I'm  willing  to  make  an  exception  to-day  in  favor  of  you 
boys — if  you'll  promise  not  to  wreck  the  raft !"  suddenly 
said  the  big  voice  of  Captain  Jim  Davis  behind  them; 
he  had  descended  from  the  tugboat's  turret  pilot-house, 
leaving  his  father,  old  Captain  Andy  in  charge  of  the 
"  Etna."  "  Don't  you  want  to  see  the  '  tender '  make  my 
toilet,  Blair?"  he  added  laughingly.  "A  diver's  toilet  is 
a  '  weighty  matter,'  I  assure  you !" 

Then  he  seated  himself  on  a  stool  while  one  of  the 
tugboat's  crew  who  acted  as  "  tender "  or  attendant,  in- 
vested him  with  the  heavy  copper  breastplate,  studded 
with  thumbscrews  by  which  it  was  screwed  to  the  rubber 
dress. 

"  If  I  were  to  put  on  the  rest  of  my  armor  now,  I 
couldn't  heave  myself  over  the  tugboat's  side,"  chuckled 
Captain  Jim  presently,  rising  heavily  to  his  feet. 

"Lower  away  the  raft!"  he  commanded.  And  a  flat 
raft  some  twelve  feet  long  and  eight  wide  was  lowered 
upon  the  tranquil  sea  and  held  steady  while  the  diver 
dropped  cautiously  onto  it,  balancing  himself  right  on  the 
middle  of  the  flat  structure. 

The  remainder  of  his  armor  helmet,  belt  and  iron  slip- 
pers, were  lowered  to  him,  followed  by  the  airpump,  from 
which  air  would  be  pumped  through  the  hose  into  his  hel- 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA.  19 

met,  the  hose  itself  and  coiled  lifeline.  The  diver's  two 
attendants,  tender  and  pump-man,  dropped  onto  the  raft, 
too,  together  with  Blair  and  Quintin. 

Quin's  thirteen-year-old  brother  Owen  who  had  come 
out  with  them  on  the  "  Etna,"  watched  the  departure  and 
wished  he  might  go,  too. 

"This  is  great;  this  is  exciting!"  murmured  Blair,  curl- 
ing himself  upon  the  raft. 

But  the  climax  of  excitement  was  yet  to  come  when  old 
Captain  Andy  suddenly  thrust  his  head  out  of  the 
"  Etna's  "  pilot-house,  waving  a  newspaper  as  if  it  were  a 
flag. 

"  Whoo' !  Whoo' !  Boys  !  I've  big  news  for  you  !"  he 
whooped.  "  We've  all  been  wishing  to  see  an  aviator ! 
Well,  there's  one  on  the  Cape  now,  with  his  monoplane. 
And  who  should  he  be  but  Harry  Desper — little  Harry 
Desper — who  spent  a  summer  at  Myrtle  Cove  with  his 
family  when  he  was  the  same  age  as  you  youngsters. 
He's  only  '  a  boy  of  a  man,'  as  you  might  say  now — barely 
twenty-one  !"  chuckled  the  old  sailor.  "/  taught  him  how 
to  manage  a  sailboat  on  the  sea,  and  now  he's  piloting  an 
airship !  The  paper  says  that  he  has  only  lately  entered 
'  the  fields  of  aeronautics,'  and  is  going  to  try  out  his  ma- 
chine by  making  flights  around  the  Cape,  preparatory  to 
taking  part  in  one  of  the  great  air  races  from  Boston  to 
Boston  Light." 

"  Hurrah  !  Who  knows  but  that  we  may  get  a  chance 
to  see  him  to-day — from  the  diver's  raft — flying  over  the 
breakwater?"  Blair's  face  grew  tense  at  such  a  glorious 
possibility,  while  his  eyes  and  imagination  soared  aerially. 
"  This  is  simply  immense,"  he  added,  as  that  flat  raft  was 
pushed  off  with  a  boat  hook  from  the  tugboat's  side. 
"  But  I  feel  as  if  I  had  just  been  shipwrecked !" 


T 


CAPTER  III. 

A  Winged  Man. 

O  THE  two  boys  floating  on  the  diver's  raft  over  the 
tranquil  sea,  it  was  the  most  exciting  cruise  they  had 
ever  known.  Crouching  on  the  flat  structure  with 
their  chins  between  their  knees,  they  imagined  themselves 
shipwrecked  sailors  drifting  on  a  desert  shore;  or  savages 
who  did  not  know  how  to  construct  a  better  craft. 

The  raft  was  propelled  over  the  glassy  ripples  with  a 
boat  hook,  as  an  Indian  would  pole  a  canoe  downstream, 
by  one  of  the  diver's  attendants  who  would  presently  work 
the  air-pump  and  supply  air  to  the  diver  through  his  hel- 
met, when  he  fell  to  working  on  the  sea  bed. 

This  "  pump-man,"  as  he  was  called,  assumed  control 
of  the  two  passengers,  directing  them  where  to  sit  so  as 
to  balance  the  diver's  weight  upon  the  raft,  and  threaten- 
ing them  with  dire  penalties  when  in  their  imaginary  role 
of  undeveloped  savages  they  waxed  boisterous  and  threat- 
ened to  capsize  it. 

"  If  you  begin  to  '  cut  up '  on  the  raft,  I'll  heave  yois 
overboard  and  let  you  swim  back  to  the  '  Etna ' !"  Thus  he 
threatened  them.  "  This  isn't  a  birch-bark  canoe  where 
you  have  to  part  your  hair  in  the  middle  to  avoid  cap- 
sizing it;  still  as  the  edge  of  the  raft  is  elevated  only  three 
inches  above  the  water  you  could  tip  it  down  pretty  easily. 
You  see  we  distribute  the  weight  of  the  pump  and  the 
diver's  armor  so  as  to  balance  it." 

"  Well,  it  isn't  as  bad  as  an  aeroplane  which  an  aviator 
might  capsize  with  a  good  big  sneeze — that's  what  I've 
read !"  remarked  Quintin,  whose  keen  young  eyes  every 
now  and  then  searched  the  dappled  blue  sky  for  any  sign 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  21 

of  the  aeronaut  who,  according  to  newspaper  report, 
might  be  seen  from  now  on  making  flights  around  the 
Cape,  for  Harry  Desper  on  his  monoplane. 

"  If  /  should  try  not  to  sneeze,  that's  the  time  I'd  be 
sure  to  bring  out  a  thumping  big  one  !"  laughed  Blair, 
keeping  an  eye  on  the  fleecy  cloudlets,  too. 

But  now  his  attention  was  chained  by  a  sight  as  new  to 
him  as  would  be  an  ascending  aeroplane — that  of  the  diver 
beside  him  preparing  to  go  down. 

That  diver,  Captain  Jim,  occupied  the  only  seat  upon 
the  raft,  a  humble  stool.  .He  had  removed  his  nautical- 
looking  cap,  substituting  a  knitted  red  one  whose  scarlet 
tassel  capered  in  the  slight  breeze  now  springing  up. 

"  He  looks  like  a  grand  Turk,  or  a  Sultan  of  some  out- 
of-the-way  place  in  that  loose  gray  dress,  copper  breast- 
plate and  tasseled  cap,"  commented  Blair  as  the  diver 
made  ready  to  don  the  rest  of  his  armor. 

"  Hand  me  my  '  Cinderella  slippers  '  !"  joked  that  am- 
phibious knight  to  his  attendant.  "  Try  and  lift  one  of 
them!"  to  Blair. 

The  boy  did  so. 

"  Ouch  !"  he  cried,  as  he  lifted  the  iron  slipper,  weigh- 
ing twenty-three  pounds,  a  few  inches  from  the  raft.  "  I 
should  think  a  diver's  toilet  is  a  '  weighty  matter  ' !" 

But  once  again  that  strange  sensation  like  a  breeze 
from  a  new  climate  swept  over  Blair,  making  his  skin 
feel  chilly  while  all  his  heart  bubbled  up  inside  him;  for 
the  diver  weighted  now  with  breastplate  and  slippers,  rose 
laboriously  to  his  feet;  and  with  one  great  stride — for 
Captain  Jim  was  a  powerful  man — heaved  himself  onto 
a  short  ladder,  the  top  rungs  of  which  were  lashed 
to  the  raft's  side,  and  the  rest  of  it  submerged  in  the 
supporting  waves. 

As  the  diver  balanced  himself  on  that  descending  ladder 
with  half  his  body  out  of  water — while  the  boys,  pump- 
man and  pump  distributed  their  weight  so  as  to  steady  the 


22  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

raft — the  tender  buckled  upon  him  the  leaden  belt  weigh- 
ing a  trifling  matter  of  a  hundred  pounds,  and  held  the 
round  copper  helmet  weighing  forty  poised  above  his  head. 

Ere  that  helmet  descended  the  diver  shot  a  glance  at  his 
boyish  passengers. 

"  So  lone,  boys  !"  he  said.  "  Perhaps  you'll  see  me  com- 
ing up  feet  foremost  for  fun." 

But  as  he  signaled  to  the  attendant  for  his  helmet,  Cap- 
tain Jim  shot  another  glance,  a  grave  look,  upward  at  the 
summer  sun,  which  he  would  see  through  the  ocean's  twi- 
light only  as  a  winking  evening  star,  as  if  he  were  saying 
good-by  to  that  too. 

The  helmet,  with  its  four  "  bull's-eyes,"  or  glass  win- 
dows, descended,  shutting  him  out  from  the  sweet  summer 
air,  and  was  screwed  to  the  collar  of  his  dress. 

The  pump  man  who  now  grasped  the  brake  of  the  patent 
air-pump,  began  to  work  that  handle  rhythmically,  pump- 
ing air  through  the  rubber  hose,  the  other  end  of  which 
was  connected  with  a  protruding  "  elbow  "  in  the  diver's 
helmet.     Captain  Jim  backed  down  the  ladder. 

The  glassy  sea  closed  over  him.  A  wave  of  feeling  en- 
gulfed the  boys  at  the  same  time.  Blair  could  hardly 
account  for  the  warm  tickling  in  his  throat.  But  as  the 
diver  disappeared,  his  eyes  were  wet  and  winking.  He 
looked  shamefacedly  at  Quin.  The  latter  nodded  back 
comprehendingly. 

"  I  always  feel  like  that,  too,  if  I'm  close  to  a  diver 
when  he  goes  down,"  said  the  Cape  boy.  "  Uncle  Jim  is  a 
good  diver,  and  he's  stronger  in  the  dress  than  out  of  it — 
folks  say  he's  a  regular  Samson  in  the  dress.  He's  a  good 
man,  I  tell  you  !"  proudly.  "  Won't  it  be  fun  to  see  him 
come  up,  feet  foremost  in  those  iron  slippers?  Well, 
while  we're  waiting  for  it  we  may  as  well  watch  the  sky 
for  that  aviator,"  Quin  stretched  himself  on  the  raft, 
now  rocking  gently  on  the  placid  sea,  stirred  by  a  baby 
breeze. 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA.  23 

Blair  followed  his  example.  Chin  in  hands,  both  boys 
stared  expectantly  skyward.  The  sea  becoming  a  little 
ruffled  and  the  depth  being  greater  here,  they  could  not 
watch  the  diver  at  work.  Neither  did  they  behold  a  man- 
bird  soaring  across  the  blue  sky  or  hear  the  buzz  of  an 
aeroplane. 

After  twenty  minutes  of  dreamy  rocking  there  were 
three  quick  jerks  on  the  diver's  lifeline  which  the  tender, 
now  seated  on  the  stool,  held  between  his  finger  and  thumb. 

"  He's  signaling  up  from  below.  Three  jerks.  That 
means  he's  coming  up  to  breathe !"  cried  Quintin. 

With  catlike  caution  the  boys  rose  to  their  feet  and 
stared  at  the  sea,  breaking  into  shout  after  shout  of  laugh- 
ter as  a  pair  of  iron  toes — the  toes  of  those  "  Cinderella 
slippers " — were  seen  clearing  the  ripples.  Turning  a 
floundering  somersault  in  the  waves  the  diver  landed  on 
the  ladder,  his  mittened  hands  grasping  its  sides. 

"  Bravo !  that  was  comical,"  applauded  the  boys. 

Captain  Jim,  his  helmet  removed,  clung  to  the  ladder  for 
a  few  minutes,  drinking  in  the  summer  air  with  great 
thirsty  gasps. 

"  Boys,  if  you  should  see  an  aviator  flying  overhead, 
come  and  get  me !"  he  laughed,  preparing  to  go  down 
again.  "  I'd  like  to  see  the  man-bird's  first  appearance 
in  our  skies," 

"  We  won't  see  a  '  man-bird ' ;  that's  too  good  to  be 
true,"  murmured  Quin  pessimistically,  stretching  himself 
again  upon  the  raft. 

But  scarcely  had  the  diver's  iron-shod  feet  again  touched 
the  bottom  when  the  pump-man,  staring  off  at  the  horizon, 
while  he  monotonously  worked  the  brake  or  handle  of  the 
air-pump,  gave  a  cry. 

"  There — there  it  is  !"  he  exploded,  "  there's  the  mono- 
plane !  See — see  that  speck  high  above  the  headland? 
See — boys — see  !"  He  was  the  only  one  on  the  raft  who 
had  seen  an  aeroplane  before. 


24  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

"  It  is  !  It  is  a  flying  machine.  I  can  hear  the  engine !" 
he  added  in  a  low  shout,  inclining  an  ear  forward,  the 
excitement  in  his  hitherto  stolid  face  contrasting  strangely 
with  the  slow,  steady  working  of  the  air-pump  on  which 
depended  the  life  of  the  diver  below. 

The  boys  were  on  their  feet  like  a  flash,  less  cautiously 
this  time. 

"Where?     Where  is  it?"  they  cried  gustily. 

"  There — I  see  it,  too  !"  Blair's  discovery  exploded  like 
a  firecracker  on  the  heels  of  his  questioner.  "/  see  it! 
Oh-oh-h  !  the  big  dragon  fly  !" 

Quin  had  located  it,  too,  now — that  developing  winged 
speck — skimming  nearly  a  thousand  feet  above  the  bold 
cape  headland.  And  in  the  wonder  of  it  the  boys'  breath- 
ing was  as  the  deep  breathing  of  the  sea  about  them — 
heavy,  ruffled,  joyous  !  Each  felt  as  if  all  the  thrills  he 
had  ever  known  were  concentrated  into  one  big  joy  thrill. 

Here,  on  the  diver's  raft,  they  were  between  the  hero 
of  the  deep  and  the  hero  of  the  air  ! 

On  came  the  monoplane,  the  glittering  monster  dragon 
fly,  swimming  toward  the  point  of  blue  sky  right  above 
the  breakwater.  And  beyond  one  or  two  gusty  mono- 
syllables the  boys  could  not  find  speech  to  welcome  it. 
They  quivered  from  neck  to  heels  with  exultation,  proud 
to  be  alive,  proud  to  claim  human  brotherhood  with  that 
winged  man — with  Harry  Desper — that  "  boy  of  a  man," 
as  old  Captain  Andy  called  him — now  flying  triumphantly 
above  the  sea. 

Other  generations  before  them  had  seen  the  advent  of 
the  train,  steamboat,  telegraph,  telephone,  "  wireless,"  and 
many  other  discoveries ;  but,  oh,  as  they  vaguely  felt,  it 
was  great  to  be  a  boy  when  this  latest,  greatest  wonder 
of  the  world  was  in  its  boyhood — the  conquest  of  the  air ! 

"  He's  heading  this  way  now — going  to  pass  right  over 
us,  over  the  breakwater !"  exclaimed  Quintin  in  stifled 
tones,  thrilling  to  his  boots. 


LOOK    OUT!       YOU  LL   CAPSIZE    US,       SHRIEKED 

THE    TENDER    IN    ALARM. 

25 


26  HEROES    OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

The  diver's  tender  had  not  signaled  down  to  his  chief, 
because  he  knew  that  nothing  short  of  disaster  could  bring 
Captain  Jim  up  from  the  sea  bed  when  he  was  at  work. 

But  old  Captain  Andy,  left  aboard  the  "  Etna,"  had 
espied  the  aeroplane  on  high,  piloted  by  "  little  Harry 
Desper,"  whom  as  a  boy,  he  had  taught  to  master  one 
element,  the  sea,  and  who  had  now  conquered  the  air. 

In  his  excitement  the  old  man  directed  the  tugboat's 
engineer  to  salute  the  triumphant  aviator  with  three  loud 
screams  of  the  "  Etna's  "  steam  whistle — a  nautical  three 
cheers. 

Two  other  tugs,  moored  near  the  breakwater,  took  up 
the  whistling,  too,  celebrating  the  first  appearance  of  a 
man-bird  on  the  cape  shores. 

The  noise  broke  the  spell  which  held  the  boys  motion- 
less. Together  with  the  audible  buzz  of  the  monoplane's 
engine  so  high  above  them,  it  threw  them  into  a  frenzy 
of  excitement.     They  burst  into  wild  cheering,  too. 

As  if  dazed  by  that  aerial  buzz,  Quin,  forgetting  that  he 
was  floating  on  another  unstable  element,  on  a  flat  raft 
that  needed  balancing,  though  not  so  nicely  as  the  air 
craft  above,  made  two  blind  steps  toward  the  raft's  edge. 

Blair,  his  eyes  riveted  skyward  on  that  superb  air-con- 
quering dragon  fly,  with  the  sun  silvering  its  forward 
wings  and  the  aluminum  propeller  (corresponding  to  the 
insect's  head)  which  dragged  it  through  the  air,  stepped 
rashly  after  him;  both  boys  thus  throwing  their  weight 
on  one  side  of  the  raft  with  the  tender  and  his  stool. 

"  Look  out !  Look  out !  You'll  capsize  us.  You'll  tip 
over  the  raft!"  shrieked  the  tender  in  alarm. 

Too  late !  The  raft's  side  had  dipped  already  until  the 
sea  curled  over  it. 

With  cries  so  loud  that  it  seemed  as  if  they  must  be 
heard  by  the  soaring  aviator  above,  with  a  frantic  flour- 
ishing of  legs  and  arms  the  boys  strove  to  right  it  and 
recover  their  equilibrium.     In  vain  !     The  flat  structure 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA.  27 

dipped  more  still,  like  a  tilting  table,  as  the  waves  rippled 
over  the  edge. 

The  tender  and  pump-man,  both  nimble  seamen,  hung 
on  desperately  to  the  partly  submerged  raft,  the  former 
hugging  the  air-pump  which  meant  breath  to  the  diver 
below. 

The  two  boys  slid  off  into  the  sea,  shrieking,  while 
overhead  the  man-bird  sailed  proudly  on. 


*s/^S~g%fs*m 


CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Ascending  Monoplane. 

IE  THAT  aviator  on  his  monoplane,  flying  triumphantly 
over  harbor  and  breakwater  could,  looking  down,  have 

beheld  the  catastrophe  caused  by  his  first  appearance 
as  a  man-bird  on  the  Cape  coast,  consternation  would 
have  filled  him. 

The  flat  raft,  after  playing  a  wild  game  of  seesaw  with 
the  waves,  righted  itself  without  injury  to  the  air-pump, 
which  the  pump-man  had  protected  at  risk  to  himself. 
The  tender  had  lost  his  stool  in  the  watery  scrimmage; 
it  slipped  off  into  the  sea  with  the  boys,  and  cruised  away 
on  its  own  hook  with  its  four  sturdy  legs  in  the  air,  like  a 
kicking  animal. 

Quintin  who,  as  a  Cape  boy,  could  swim  like  an  eel, 
managed  to  scramble  back  onto  the  raft.  But  Blair,  never 
having  practiced  swimming  sufficiently  to  become  expert 
for  his  age,  hampered  by  his  clothing,  would  have  sunk 
speedily  to  join  the  diver  on  the  sea  bed,  had  not  the 
tender,  taking  that  diver's  lifeline  between  his  teeth, 
snatched  up  the  boat  hook  whereby  the  raft  had  been 
propelled,  which  had  not  gone  overboard.  Hooking  its 
iron  crook  into  Blair's  clothing,  he  lifted  the  struggling 
boy  bodily  out  of  the  waves,  and  landed  him  on  the  raft, 
as  one  might  gaff  a  big  fish,  before  the  "  Etna's  "  lifeboat 
which  had  been  lowered  at  once  could  reach  the  spot. 

"  Well,  that  was  the  worse  d-ducking  I — ever — had," 
sputtered  the  rescued  Blair,  as  breath  returned,  his  words 
splashing  in  the  amount  of  sea  water  which  he  had  swal- 
lowed. 

"  It  would  have  been  a  pretty  bad  accident  for  the  diver 

28 


30  HEROES    OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

if  the  air-pump  had  gone  overboard,"  returned  the  tender; 
"  he  would  never  come  to  the  surface  again  alive.  Well, 
the  lifeboat  had  bet^r  take  you  two  boys  back  to  the 
1  Etna.'  Perhaps  they  can  find  you  some  dry  clothing 
there.  I'm  pretty  badly  drenched  myself,  but  we  " — nod- 
ding toward  the  pump-man — "  will  have  to  stay  on  the 
raft  until  the  diver  comes  up  again." 

"  And  we  lost  sight  of  the  aeroplane ;  it  must  have 
passed  right  over  our  heads  while  we  were  kicking  round 
in  the  water  !"  lamented  Quintin,  shaking  the  wet  out  of 
his  hair,  his  eyes  greedily  searching  the  horizon  for  a  fur- 
ther glimpse  of  that  winged  man. 

"  Oh !  The  aviator  was  out  of  sight  long  ago;  he 
must  have  been  going  about  a  mile  a  minute;  the  mono- 
plane was  '  humming !'  "  chuckled  the  diver's  tender. 

"  Doesn't  that  stool  look  comical  ?"  sniffed  Blair,  as 
two  dripping  boys  were  transferred  to  the  lifeboat.  "  I've 
lost  my  cap,  so  has  Quintin !" 

The  stool  was  picked  up,  but  not  the  headgear. 

A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  the  lads  were  parading  the 
"  Etna's  "  main  deck,  Blair  enveloped  in  a  suit  of  black 
overalls  lent  by  the  tugboat's  engineer,  while  Quin  strut- 
ted about  in  a  costume  suggestive  of  pirate  pictures,  shirt 
and  trousers  belonging  to  a  huge  deck  hand  of  the  tug- 
boat's crew,  with  the  sleeves  rolled  back  to  the  elbow  and 
trousers  turned  up  to  the  knee.  Round  his  head  the  boy 
twisted,  turban-fashion,  a  red  cotton  handkerchief  found 
in  the  pocket  of  the  latter. 

"Death  to  pirates!"  laughed  Blair,  rushing  upon  him; 
and  there  ensued  a  sham  battle  in  which,  hampered  by 
their  garments,  neither  could  declare  a  victory,  Quin's 
thirteen-year-old  brother,  Owen,  taking  part  in  the  merry 
onslaught,  too. 

"  It's  the  first  time  I've  worn  working  overalls ;  per- 
haps it  won't  be  the  last,"  panted  Blair,  pausing  breath- 
lessly.    "  One  thing  I  know ;  I'm  going  to  learn  how  to 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA.  31 

swim  as  well  as  any  Cape  boy;  if  I  should  fall  overboard 
again,  I  don't  propose  to  be  hooked  back  like  a  fish  !" 

"  Right  you  are,  my  lad !"  Captain  Andy  who  had 
descended  from  the  pilot  house,  stroked  the  boy's  shoul- 
der. "  If  you're  to  assist  yourself  or  others — and  there'll 
come  a  time,  mark  you,  when  you'll  want  to  help  some- 
body else  more  than  you  ever  wanted  to  help  yourself — 
you  can  do  it  only  by  making  the  best  of  every  power 
that  God  has  given  you  of  mind  and  body." 

Blair  nodded  respectfully.  During  their  experience  on 
the  raft  both  boys  had  felt  that  in  a  world  where  men 
faced  such  dangers  as  did  these  ocean  divers  in  the  serv- 
ice of  their  fellow-men — or  took  risks,  as  did  the  aviator, 
in  the  cause  of  progress — a  boy  would  disgrace  his  boy- 
hood who  could  not  be  hard  working  and  unselfish,  too. 

"  If  Uncle  Jim  had  taken  me  on  the  raft,  I  wouldn't 
have  fallen  into  the  water,"  piped  up  Owen.  "  I  saw  the 
man-bird  longer  than  you  did,  Blair  !" 

"  Yes ;  I  wonder  when  we'll  catch  sight  of  him  again  ?" 
young  Hammond  sighed  longingly. 

"  Well,  Harry  Desper  is  staying  at  Bayhead  with  his 
family,"  suggested  Captain  Andy.  "  The  '  Etna '  will  be 
going  round  there,  next  Friday.  I'm  going  on  her.  You 
boys  can  come,  too,  if  you  want  to !  I'm  bound  to  see 
that  monoplane  again;  and  I'd  like  to  know  whether 
Harry  remembers  me,  and  the  summer  mornings,  six 
years  ago,  when  he  got  up  early  to  go  fishing  with  me  in 
my  little  dory.  That  dory  is  hauled  up  on  the  beach  near 
my  home  now;  she's  getting  old  and  tender,"  added  the 
sailor  quaintly.  "  I  don't  know  whether  she's  seaworthy 
or  not." 


Harry  Desper  did  remember  that  dory,  and  the  sturdy 
little  rowboat,  in  which  he  had  gone  dawn-fishing  on 
many  a  morning  with  old  Captain  Andy  Davis,  long  be- 


32  HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA. 

fore  he  ever  dreamed  of  navigating  an  airship.  He  re- 
membered Captain  Andrew,  too. 

When  on  the  Friday  morning  following  his  first  start- 
ling appearance  as  an  aviator  on  the  Cape  shores,  the 
tugboat  "  Etna  "  hove  to  alongside  a  jutting  pier  at  Bay- 
head,  and  three  boys — Blair,  Quintin  and  Owen — jumped 
ashore  with  Captain  Andy,  they  beheld  a  very  boyish- 
looking  young  man,  leaning  against  a  shed,  whistling 
blithely. 

"There  he  is!  There's  Harry  Desper!"  exclaimed  the 
old  captain  joyously,  making  towards  him. 

The  boys  approached,  too,  with  beating  hearts.  They 
could  hardly  believe,  Blair  and  Quintin,  that  the  daring 
aviator,  who  had  created  such  a  gale  of  excitement  when 
they  first  beheld  him  facing  an  aerial  gale,  stirred  up  by 
his  propeller,  as  he  flew  a  thousand  feet  above  headland 
and  sea,  could  walk  the  earth  like  an  ordinary  mortal. 

Owen  almost  expected  to  see  wings  attached  to  his 
person,  which  he  could  spread  at  will  and  soar  into  the 
blue. 

But,  at  sight  of  the  sea  captain,  Desper  sprang  for- 
ward with  outstretched  hand  and  manner  as  boyishly 
eager  as  their  own. 

"  Hullo,  Captain  Andy!"  he  cried,  "  I'm  ever  so  glad  to 
see  you.  I  was  thinking  of  making  a  flight  across  the 
Cape  to  call  on  you ;  but  I  remembered  that  there  is  no 
safe  landing  place  for  an  aeroplane  in  that  swampy  field 
near  your  home — my  machine  might  have  turned  turtle 
with  me  as  I  came  clown." 

"Well,  if  I  had  seen  you  'coasting'  down  from  the 
clouds  near  my  doorway,  I  guess  the  shock  might  have 
been  too  much  for  me,"  chuckled  the  old  man.  "  But  I'm 
mighty  glad  to  see  you,  Harry,  and  proud  to  know  that 
you've  done  something  in  the  world.  I  did  catch  a  sight 
of  you  Monday  last,  flying  from  headland  to  headland, 
high  above  the  harbor  and   breakwater.      Here  are  two 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA.  33 

boys  who  were  thrown  into  such  a  gale  of  excitement 
by  the  sight  of  you,  that,  like  a  pair  of  geese-heads,  they 
slipped  off  the  diver's  raft  into  the  sea.  They  nearly 
wrecked  the  raft  and  brought  disaster  to  the  diver.  How- 
ever, they'll  know  better  next  time.  And  they'd  be  proud 
to  shake  hands  with  a  real  aviator." 

"  Oh  !  I  read  of  that  raft  accident  in  the  newspaper," 
returned  Harry  Desper,  extending  a  ready  palm  to  each  of 
the  three  lads  in  turn.  At  touch  of  that  glad  hand,  awe 
of  the  air  hero  melted  away. 

"I  didn't  fall  into  the  water;  I  wasn't  on  the  raft," 
declared  Owen,  bent  on  proving  an  alibi. 

"  Oh,  ho  !  Then  I'll  let  you  see  my  monoplane,  since 
you  were  the  only  one  to  keep  dry !"  jested  the  aviator. 
"  Don't  you  want  to  have  a  look  at  it,  Captain  Andy?  It's 
under  the  tent  in  that  field." 

He  led  the  way  to  a  canvas  shelter. 

And  there  was  the  aeroplane,  earth's  latest  wonder, 
with  its  light  framework  of  aluminum,  its  spreading 
wings,  or  main  supporting  planes,  at  the  forward  end  of 
the  machine,  with  the  smaller  auxiliary  wings  at  the 
rear,  connected  with  the  rudder. 

"  I  declare  !  There's  a  great  deal  of  a  flying  machine," 
ejaculated  Quintin. 

"  It  certainly  is  a  slick  bit  of  mechanism,"  commented 
Captain  Andy. 

"  It  has  to  be.  An  aviator  takes  risks  enough  even 
with  the  best  machine,"  was  Harry  Desper's  reply. 
"  'Twas  well  for  me,  Captain  Andy,"  he  added  warmly, 
"  that  you  made  me  throw  my  first  cigaret  into  the  sea, 
and  promise  never  to  light  another  that  summer  morning, 
six  years  ago,  when  I  went  fishing  with  you  in  your  little 
dory.  If  I  were  to  light  one  in  the  air,  I'd  stand  a  good 
chance  of  hitting  the  ground  pretty  quickly  !" 

The  three  boys,  listening,  registered  a  vow  that  they 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  cigarets  either. 


34  HEROES    OF   AIR    AXD    SEA. 

"  My  wings,  you  see,  are  of  rubberized  silk,  made  water- 
proof by  varnishing,"  explained  the  aviator.  "  On  the 
monoplane  the  propeller  is  in  front,  and  drags  it  through 
the  air,  instead  of  astern,  as  it  is  on  the  tugboat  which 
brought  you  here." 

"How  does  it  feel  to  fly?"  inquired  Blair,  bringing 
out  a  question  which  had  long  trembled  on  his  lips. 

"  Oh  !  I  guess  one  likes  it  from  the  first,  unless  there's 
too  much  wind,  or  one  strikes  a  current  of  air  which  is 
gusty  and  choppy,  when  you  have  to  soar  higher  or  drop 
lower,   where  the  current  is   calmer." 

"I  suppose  you  wouldn't  take  up  a  passenger?"  The 
boy's  chest  heaved  up  as  he  put  the  daring  question. 

"  Xot  one  of  your  age  !  I  don't  think  I'd  ever  consent 
to  carry  boys  aloft,  who  couldn't  keep  cool  under  excite- 
ment on  the  diver's  raft,"  Harry  Desper  laughed. 

"  Perhaps  we'd  show  you  that  we  could  keep  our 
heads !"  put  forward  Blair.  Desper  smiled  again,  with 
good-natured  skepticism. 

"  Blair  certainly  did  show  presence  of  mind  once,  when 
he  climbed  a  quarry  boiler  to  escape  an  angry  bull,"  sug- 
gested Captain  Andy,  proceeding  to  narrate  the  incident 
which  the  aviator  would  have  set  down  as  a  story  if  it  had 
not  been  Captain  Andrew  who  told  it. 

"  Now,  I'm  sorry,  but  I'll  have  to  ask  you  to  get  out- 
side the  field :  I'm  going  to  make  a  flight  presently,  and  I 
can't  have  anybody  near  but  my  mechanicians  when  I  go 
up."  said  Desper,  after  he  had  exhibited  his  fine  gasoline 
engine,  with  the  pilot's  seat  right  over  it  in  what  he  called 
the  monoplanes  "cockpit."  "  Oh,  I  forgot  to  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  number  on  my  rudder  at  the  tail  of  the  ma- 
chine !"  indicating  a  big  black  "9"  on  the  rudder — on  the 
steering  apparatus  so  delicately  strung  with  piano  wire 
connecting  it  with  the  aviator's  body.  "  If  I  should  be 
flying  low,  boys,  in  that  race  from  Boston  to  the  Light,  and 
you  are  there  to  see,  you  can  identify  me  by  this  number." 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA.  35 

"Won't  we  cheer  if  we  see  you  winning?"  chorused 
the  trio,  as  with  Captain  Andy,  they  reluctantly  betook 
themselves  into  a  neighboring  field. 

"  So  the  aviator,  like  the  diver,  has  two  attendants," 
remarked  Quintin  as,  watching  from  a  distance,  they  be- 
held the  pair  of  mechanicians  bring  the  monoplane  forth 
from  the  tent. 

There  ensued  a  period  of  breathless  waiting  while  the 
two  attendants  busied  themselves  with  preparations. 

"There!  he's  off.  He's — off!"  cried  Blair  of  a  sudden, 
his  excited  breath  tickling  his  throat  like  a  feather,  as 
that  dragon-fly  monoplane  started  away  in  a  little  run 
along  the  ground,  after  the  manner  of  some  great  birds 
when  preparing  to  fly;  then  rose  proudly  into  the  air,  its 
engine  humming  like  a  mammoth  bee. 

As  it  climbed  the  sunlight  to  the  tree  tops'  level,  with 
the  body  of  the  aviator,  now  in  his  suit  of  tan  leathers, 
like  the  golden  body  of  a  bird  between  the  spreading  for- 
ward wings,  Quin  clasped  his  hands  in  semi-despair. 

"  Ouch !  he  struck  the  branches  of  that  maple  tree. 
He's  into  the  elm — now.  Oh  !  he'll  hit  the  ground  again  !" 
cried  the  boy,  tragically. 

"  No !  No !  He's  steered  clear  of  the  elm  tree  !" 
Blair's  mouth  yawned  like  a  fissure  as  he  gazed  upward, 
his  nostrils  being  quite  insufficient  for  breathing  at  this 
moment,  while  the  rebounding  aeroplane,  on  the  verge 
of  a  fall,  righted  itself  miraculously,  owing  to  the  skill 
and  nerve  of  its  youthful  pilot,  bidding  adieu  to  the  tallest 
bough  that  would  ensnare  it. 

"  He's  going  to  fly  right  over  this  apple  tree,  above  our 
heads,"  exclaimed  Blair,  entranced.  "If  I  could  throw  an 
apple  high  enough  I   might  hit  him  !" 

He  shot  a  ruddy  pippin  into  the  air  as  he  spoke.  The 
apple,  tethered  by  gravitation,  fell  humbly  earthward 
again,  struck  the  crown  of  Captain  Andy's  straw  hat,  and 
rebounded  to  the  ground. 


36  HEROES    OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

"  Whoo !  whoo !"  barked  the  sea  captain,  "  when  next 
you,  Blair,  want  to  make  a  target  of  an  air  man  I  hope 
I  won't  be  around.  But  doesn't  he  look  proud  sailing  off, 
up  there,  Harry  Desper,  that  '  boy  of  a  man,'  to  whom 
we  were  talking  down  here  half  an  hour  ago?"  And 
Captain  Andrew  waved  his  battered  straw  hat  at  the  sun- 
tipped  aeroplane  with  its  youthful  pilot,  which  soared  ever 
higher  into  the  blue.  "  It  lays  over  anything  that  I  ever 
saw  or  even  dreamed  of,  lads  !"  he  added,  with  a  humid 
light  in  his  eye. 

The  latter  broke  into  exultant  joy  whoops. 

"  Three  cheers  for  Desper — for  Harry  Desper ! 
Whoo  !  whoo !  bravo  !  hurrah !"  they  shouted  exultantly. 
"  We  know  he'll  win  in  that  air-race !" 

The  little  crowd  of  spectators  around  them  took  up 
the  cheers. 

The  tugboat  "  Etna,"  now  under  the  command  of  her 
diving  master,  Captain  Jim,  tooted  shrilly  with  her  steam 
whistle  applause  that  mingled  with  the  monoplane's  climb- 
ing buzz. 

"What  are  you  thinking  of,  Blair?"  asked  Captain 
Andy,  catching  a  peculiar  expression  of  the  boy's  face  as 
his  dazzled  gaze  dropped  earthward. 

"  I'm  thinking — "  Blair  drew  a  long  breath,  "  of  how 
I  wish  that  we — Quin  and  I — could  show  the  aviator  that 
we  could  '  keep  cool,'  have  presence  of  mind  in  an  emer- 
gency," feeling  that  by  their  behavior  on  the  raft  they 
had  forfeited  the  opportunity  of  ever  being  taken  aloft 
by  Harry   Desper  as  passengers  on  an  "  air-ride "  ! 

He  little  dreamed  that  the  day  was  not  far  distant  when 
the  aviator's  shining  triumph  would  temporarily  collapse 
like  a  bubble,  and  his  life  be  in  the  hands  of  two  boys 
whose  feet  pressed  the  humble  sod  of  Mother  Earth. 


CHAPTER  V. 
Disaster  to  the  Aviator. 

IN  THE  days  which  followed  his  witnessing  the  ascen- 
sion to  cloudland   of  Harry   Desper's   monoplane,   the 

wish  was  often  in  Blair's  mind  that  he  could  prove  to 
the  daring  aviator  his  ability  to  be  cool  and  resourceful 
in  an  emergency — notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Quintin 
and  he  had  allowed  excitement  to  oust  judgment  on  the 
diver's  raft. 

Under  the  prod  of  this  desire — but  more  still  due  to 
the  heroic  examples  before  him  in  the  diver  and  aviator 
— the  boy  set  himself,  as  Captain  Andy  had  devised,  to 
develop  every  power  he  possessed  of  mind  and  body,  feel- 
ing that,  otherwise,  if  the  time  should  come  for  him  to 
prove  his  mettle,  the  great  moment  would  catch  him  un- 
prepared. 

He  practiced  rowing  and  swimming  until  he  could  al- 
most outdo  Quintin,  who  was  half  amphibious,  learning 
that  in  sport  or  study  the  door  to  the  highest  pleasure 
opens  only  to  the  lad  who  strives  for  perfection. 

"  That  whistle  of  yours  is  much  better  worth  '  patent- 
ing '  now,  my  lad,  than  it  was  on  the  day  when  I  first 
ran  across  you  !"  joked  Captain  Andy  one  morning  to- 
ward the  end  of  August,  when  Blair  met  him  on  the 
quarry  pier  with  a  new  whistle  on  his  lips,  so  full  of 
original  flourishes,  so  crisp  and  expressive  of  manly  ac- 
tivity, that  it  might  have  justified  exclusive  proprietary 
rights — if  buoyancy  and  cheer  could  be  "patented." 

"  That  boy  is  going  to  make  good.  He's  beginning  to 
go  ahead  under  all  the  sail  he  can  carry,"  muttered  the 

37 


38  HEROES    OF   AIR   AXD   SEA. 

old  captain  to  himself  in  his  seaman's  metaphor.  Aloud 
he  added :  "  Are  you  going  off  on  the  'Etna  '  to  the  break- 
water this  morning,  Blair — Quin  and  you?  You  two  are 
becoming  as  inseparable  as  a  pair  of  magpies." 

"  Yes,  we're  bound  out  to  the  breakwater,"  Blair  made 
answer.  "  I  love  to  watch  those  fourteen  divers  at  work 
when  the  ocean  is  calm  enough  to  see  them,  or  to  watch 
Captain  Jim  coming  up,  feet  foremost,  for  fun,  when  it 
isn't !" 

But  he  did  not  see  Captain  Jim  perform  that  comical 
feat  that  day.  He  beheld  something  more  laughable  still. 
He  saw  that  old  practical  joker,  Grandfather  Ocean, 
tumble  the  diver  about  on  the  surface  of  the  waves,  in- 
stead of  allowing  him  to  go  down  beneath  them,  because 
he  happened  to  get  too  much  pumped  air  into  his  rubber 
dress,  inflating  it  so  that,  despite  all  the  metal  weight  on 
him,  he  could  not  sink,  but  floundered  about  on  the  sea's 
breast  like  half  a  dozen  porpoises  rolled  into  one  ! 

Shriek  after  shriek  of  laughter  burst  from  the  boys — 
Blair,  Quintin  and  Owen — as  they  watched  the  aquatic 
gambols  of  that  baffled  diver,  with  the  sunlight  burnishing 
his  globelike  helmet  and  its  plate-glass  windows,  like  the 
great  round  head  of  some  sea  monster  with  eyes  before 
and  behind. 

"  When,  next,  Captain  Jim  twits  us  with  nearly  capsiz- 
ing his  raft  and  losing  his  air-pump  on  our  first  catch- 
ing sight  of  an  aviator,  we'll  get  back  by  joking  him 
about  a  diver  who  couldn't  dive !"  suggested  Blair,  as  that 
floundering  diver,  letting  the  superfluous  air  escape 
through  a  valve  in  his  helmet,  at  last  disappeared  to  the 
bottom. 

"  Yes,  that's  an  annoying  trick,  boys,  when  one  get's 
too  much  air  in  the  dress,"  said  Captain  Jim  later,  when 
he  came  to  the  surface  to  rest  and  breathe,  and  faced  a 
volley  of  banter  from  the  two  elder  lads.  "  But  there's 
a  queerer  trick  still  which  that  pumped  air  plays  on  me 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA.  39 

once  in  a  while,  when  it  gets  into  the  toes  of  the  rubber 
dress  and  steals  under  the  soles  of  my  feet  while  I'm  at 
work,  so  that  I  can't  keep  my  footing  on  the  bottom." 

"  How  does  it  feel  then  ?"  questioned  both  boys  in  the 
same  breath. 

"  Why,  as  if  the  diver  had  wings  on  his  feet  which 
carry  him  upward  through  the  sea  as  Harry  Desper's. 
fine  wings  bear  him  upward  when  he  starts  to  fly !  And 
there's  something  worse  than  coming  to  the  surface 
against  your  will;  that's  being  forced  to  stay  down  when 
you  want  to  come  up,  being  caught  below!" 

"How  does  this  happen?"  Blair  asked  eagerly. 

"  Oh,  if  one  is  moving  great,  heavy  rocks  under  water, 
.as  we  divers  are  doing  at  the  base  of  the  breakwater, 
sometimes  one  gets  a  leg  or  one's  whole  body  jammed 
between  those  rocks;  then,  it  is  often  impossible  to  free 
one's  self,  until  another  diver  comes  down  to  extricate 
you." 

It  was  on  the  afternoon  of  that  very  day  when  the 
two  elder  boys  stood  on  the  deck  of  the  flat-bottomed 
scow  which  transported  stone  from  the  quarries  to  the 
breakwater,  and  which  was  connected  with  the  tugboat 
by  a  short  tow-rope,  that  Quintin  nudged  Blair's  arm 
uneasily. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  Uncle  Jim  is  down  longer  than 
usual,  this  time,  without  coming  up  to  breathe  !"  he  re- 
marked, with  a  catch  in  his  breath. 

To-day,  the  diver  had  gone  down  from  the  scow's  side, 
not   from   his  raft. 

Almost  simultaneously  that  diver's  life  line,  held  be- 
tween his  tender's  finger  and  thumb,  began  to  twitch. 
Blair  was  used  to  the  three  distinct  jerks  on  the  line 
which,  according  to  the  diver's  signaling  code,  meant, 
"Go  ahead;  haul  me  up!" 

Now,  the  startled  color  rushed  in  a  hot  splash  to  both 
boys'  faces — hoisting  the  red  flag  of  danger. 


40  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

That  hempen  lifeline  twitched  five  times. 

"Caught  below!"  Quin  translated  the  meaning  of 
those  five  jerks  as  if  in  a  nightmare.  "  Uncle  Jim  is 
caught  below  !" 

The  scarlet  flush  receded  from  Blair's  cheeks,  leaving 
them  paler  than  they  had  been  in  the  quarry  engine-house 
after  his  escape  from  Jewett's  bull. 

During  the  past  month  the  boy,  awakening  to  hero 
worship,  had  set  up  in  his  imagination  twin  pedestals  and 
on  them  placed  two  heroes,  Captain  Jim,  the  diver,  and 
the  daring  aviator,  Harry  Desper. 

Now,  somewhere  beneath  that  sea — not  glassy  to-day, 
but  gray  and  impenetrable — one  of  these  heroes  was 
prisoned,  his  powerful  body  jammed  between  heavy  rocks. 
Blair  knew  that  the  pinioned  diver,  looking  up,  could  see 
the  brilliant  afternoon  sun  like  a  tiny  star  winking  down 
at  him  through  the  green  twilight  of  ocean's  bed.  He 
might  never  see  it  as  the  sun  again ! 

And  at  the  thought,  to  the  boy,  too,  that  sun  seemed  to 
go  out  of  commission;  the  summer  afternoon  to  become 
gray,  miserable  twilight ! 

"  If  I  could  do  something  for  him !  If  only  I  could 
do  something!"  he  gasped,  his  hands  closing  and  unclos- 
ing as  if  they  must  grapple  some  means  of  rescue. 

"  There's  nothing  we  boys  can  do — yet."  Quintin's 
face  was  colorless,  too,  as  he  answered.  "  None  of  the 
other  divers  are  working  near  him.  But — see !  the 
'  Etna's '  lifeboat  has  been  lowered.  It's  flying  through 
the  water  to  that  distant  tugboat,  to  bring  along  another 
diver,  to  go  down  and — free — Uncle  Jim." 

To  the  two  lads  the  next  half-hour  was  about  the  worst 
they  had  ever  known,  while  they  watched  that  speeding 
lifeboat  fetch  a  second  diver,  saw  him  don  the  belt  and 
helmet,  and  go  down  under  the  waves,  like  a  rescuing 
knight. 

They  kept  their  eyes  riveted  on  Captain  Jim's  lifeline. 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  41 

"  If  there  should  be  five  jerks  again,  that  would  mean 
that  the  other  diver  couldn't  extricate  him/'  murmured 
Quin  through   dry  lips. 

Ten  slow  minutes  passed.  That  drab  lifeline  began  to 
twitch.  The  big  world  seemed  balancing  itself  on  a  hair 
to  the  boys  as  they  counted  the  jerks.  "If  there  should 
be  five  ?     One — two — three  !     The  hemp  ceased  vibrating. 

"  Three  tugs  on  the  line !  That  means,  '  Haul  up !' 
Lend  a  hand  to  haul  him  up,  boys ! "  sKxploded  the  tender. 

And  the  two  lads  laying  hold  of  that  Incline  hauled  with 
every  grain  of  strength  they  possessed. 

There  was  a  floundering  commotion  in  the  sea.  The 
second  diver  came  to  the  surface,  with  Captain  Jim  in 
his  arms. 

"  I  had— hard  work — to  extricate  him,"  panted  the  res- 
cuer when  his  helmet  was  removed.  "  His  right  leg  was 
caught — between  two  big  rocks;  I  guess  it's  badly — 
crushed." 

Swooning  from  pain  and  stifled  exhaustion,  Captain  Jim, 
relieved  of  his  heavy  armor,  was  laid  on  the  sunlit  deck. 
Presently  his  heavy  eyes  opened  and  turned  to  the  lads 
standing  near. 

"  Oh  !  I'm  not  hurt  badly,"  he  said.  "  I'll  be  wearing 
the  dress  again  in  a  few  days.  I  guess  you  were  fright- 
ened, boys;  your  faces  are  the  color  of  stale  foam,"  he 
added  with  a  glimmering  smile.  "  When  we  get  ashore  I 
want  you — lads — to  run  and  tell  my  mother  that — that 
I've  had  a  little  accident.  She's  not  well.  You'll  know 
how  to  do  it,  Blair — so's  not  to  frighten  her.  My  father, 
Capt'n  Andy,  is  getting  to  think  a  whole  lot  of  you  !" 

"Didn't  I  tell  you  that  Uncle  Jim  was  a  fine  man?" 
whispered  Quin  passionately,  the  light  reviving  in  his 
reddened  eyes. 

Blair  nodded;  his  eyes,  too,  held  some  salt  water  which 
did  not  come  in  over  the  scow's  rail  with  the  divers;  truly, 
as  he  felt,  in  association  with  this  brave  knight  of  the  rub- 


42  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

ber  dress  and  heavy  armor,  no  boy  could  help  becoming 
a  fine  man  himself ! 

During  the  ensuing  days  when  Captain  Jim  was  laid 
up  and  the  boys'  trips  to  the  ocean  breakwater,  perforce, 
ceased,  they  made  up  for  the  deprivation  by  frequent  ex- 
cursions to  Bayhead,  where  they  seized  another  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  Harry  Desper  soar  into  the  air  on  his 
monoplane,  and  perform  wonderful  circling  flights  at 
varying  heights  above  the  sea. 

The  aviator  treated  them  with  such  cordial  intimacy, 
at  first  for  the  sake  of  his  old  friend,  Captain  Andy,  and 
later  on  their  own  account,  that  they  became  a  center  of 
attraction  among  the  boys  on  the  Cape,  and  walked  about 
in  reflected  glory  as  friends  of  the  "  boy  aviator,"  Desper. 

He  permitted  them  again  to  examine  his  monoplane,  at 
length,  explaining  the  various  feats  he  performed  in  fly- 
ing ;  how  he  "  coasted "  down  from  cloudland,  as  they 
might  coast  downhill  on  a  bicycle,  and  the  danger  when 
he  "  banked  at  a  turn,"  and  the  tilting  aeroplane  drifted  or 
skidded  many  feet  through  the  air. 

Also,  in  company  with  the  boys,  he  visited  the  injured 
diver,  Captain  Jim,  and  entertained  him  with  lively  ac- 
counts of  his  first  experiences  as  a  man-bird. 

"  I'm  planning  to  make  a  flight  round  this  part  of  the 
coast,  past  Myrtle  Cove,  to-morrow,"  he  said,  "  if  the 
weather  is  not  too  gusty.  If  you're  on  the  watch,  you 
may  see  me." 

"  I  don't  think  you'll  fly  to-morrow,  Harry,  my  lad — 
unless  you  want  to  do  so  in  the  worst  wind  you  ever  flew 
in  !"  prophesied  old  Captain  Andy,  who  was  present.  "  It 
will  be  blowing  pretty  hard  before  morning." 

Captain  Andy  was  right.  Steptember  came  in  like  a 
lion;  gales  which  usually  did  not  strike  the  Cape  until 
its  second  week,  assailed  it  in  the  first.  For  two  days 
and  nights  it  blew  a  "  screecher,"  as  Captain  Andrew  said. 
The  third  day  the  wind  decreased.     On  the  fourth  there 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  43 

did  not  seem  to  be  a  breath  stirring  in  the  heavens.  But 
the  wild-looking  sea  still  hurled  itself  in  great,  shaggy 
waves  against  the  shore,  with  the  roar  of  a  battering-ram. 

"  I  never  saw  the  sea  like  that  before ;  those  wide  rings 
of  foam  inclosing  about  an  acre  of  water — and  the  slow, 
towering  waves  throwing  up  their  white  bonnets  !"  re- 
marked Blair  to  his  inseparable  friend,  Quintin,  as  they 
sat  on  a  stone  fence  below  Captain  Andy's  cottage  at 
Myrtle  Cove,  watching  the  angry  ocean. 

"  That's  what  we  sailors  call  the  '  old  sea '  after  a 
storm,"  explained  Captain  Andrew,  himself,  limping  out 
to  join  them,  moving  stiffly,  as  was  his  wont,  since  the 
accident  of  which  he  had  told  Blair  at  their  first  meeting; 
his  right  arm  was  almost  powerless.  "  And  a  bad  old  sea 
that  is  for  any  craft  to  face,  be  it  sailing  vessel  or  row- 
boat  !"  he  went  on.  "  The  ocean,  when  it  has  been  lashed 
into  fury,  doesn't  subside  as  quickly  as  the  wind:  it  is 
often  at  its  worst  when  the  gale  seems  over. 

"  I  wonder  the  storm  didn't  tear  my  little  old  dory 
from  her  moorings,"  continued  the  sea  captain,  after  a 
pause,  pointing  to  a  small  rowboat  hauled  up  high  and 
dry  on  the  sands  of  a  narrow  cove  beneath  them,  the 
only  boat  within  sight.  "  That's  the  dory,  boys,  in  which 
Harry  Desper  used  to  go  fishing  with  me,  six  years  ago. 
She's  almost  worn  out  now;  I  haven't  overhauled  her  for 
some  time ;  I  don't  know  whether  she's  seaworthy  or  not  !" 

"Harry  Desper  wasn't  able  to  make  the  flight  round 
this  part  of  the  Cape,  of  which  he  talked  four  days  ago," 
Blair  suggested.  "Maybe  he'll  attempt  it  to-day;  he 
wants  to  get  all  the  practice  he  can  before  entering  this 
big  air-race." 

"  Whoo  !  whoo  !  I  hope  he  won't  try  it  to-day,"  ejacu- 
lated Captain  Andy.  "  A  hard  puff  of  wind  might  strike 
him  that  would  mean  an  end  to  the  aeroplane  I" 

"  But  the  wind  has  ceased,"  argued  Blair. 

"  Ho !  ho  !  has  it?     Look  at  those  low-lying  clouds;  not 


44  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA. 

much  more  than  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea !"  The 
gray-haired  sailor  shook  his  finger  at  the  dark  banks 
of  vapor  merging  into  clinging  tendrils  of  fog.  "  There's 
wind  enough  in  those  clouds,  my  lad,  to  blow  the  hair  off 
your  heads.  It's  breezing  up  even  now !"  as  a  rising  gust 
slapped  his  cheek. 

"  The  wind  she  blew  a  hurricane, 
Bimeby  she'll  blow  some  more  I" 

he  sang  in  a  fuzzy,  blustering  voice. 

"  Oh,  go  on,  gran'father ;  sing  that  song  through," 
coaxed  Quintin,  whose  delight  was  in  the  old  man's  sea 
songs. 

But  Blair,  who  at  another  time  would  have  joined  in  the 
pleading,  had  sprung  to  his  feet  in  a  tumble  of  excitement 
that  matched  the  commotion  of  the  old  sea. 

"  Don't  you  hear  it?     Don't  you  hear  it?"  he  cried. 

"Hear  what?" 

"  The  buzz  of  an  aeroplane.  I  can't  see  it.  But  I  hear 
the  engine."  The  boy  bent  forward,  listening,  as  if  every 
pulse  in  his  body  were  an  ear. 

"  Pshaw !  you  dream  aeroplanes,"  mocked  Quintin, 
springing  to  his  feet,  too,  however. 

"  He's  not  dreaming.  I  hear  it,  too,  the  engine  !"  Cap- 
tain Andy  had  likewise  risen;  his  old  body  towered,  stiff 
as  a  ramrod,  with  excitement  and  alarm. 

"  I  see  it !  I  see  it — now  !"  fired  off  Blair.  "  It's  Harry 
Desper's  monoplane.  Oh !  that  dragon  fly !"  as  the  buz- 
zing aeroplane  darted  from  behind  a  barrier  of  dark 
cloud,  was  seen  for  five  seconds,  festooned  with  fog-ten- 
drils, then  disappeared  through  another  gateway  of  cloud- 
land. 

"  That's  the  greatest  thing  that  ever  happened.  I — I 
see  it  again."  Quintin  waved  his  cap  almost  hysterically 
at  that  gray,  exploring  dragon  fly  flitting  across  another 


45 


46  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA. 

cloud-gap,  to  be  lost  again  in  aerial  mystery,  high  above 
the  ocean,  at  a  point  nearly  half  a  mile  from  shore. 

"Isn't  it  gr-reat  to  hear  him  buzzing  and  thumping  up 
there  in  the  clouds,  when  you  can't  see  him?"  Blair's 
upturned  face  was  touched  with  shining  awe. 

The  wild  wonder  of  this  flight  fairly  bewitched  the  two 
boys;  to  see  that  youthful  aviator,  Harry  Desper,  dar- 
ingly playing  a  game  of  bopeep  with  them  in  cloudland 
above  the  foamy  tumble  of  the  old  sea ! 


*y*^S:~2/N^ 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Boy  Heroes. 

4<\/OU'RE  right,  Blair;  it  certainly  beats  all,  to  hear 
\  him  buzzing  and  thumping-  up  there  in  the  clouds 
— when  we  can't  see  him  !"  exclaimed  old  Captain 
Andrew,  echoing  the  boy's  words,  as  his  trained  eyesight, 
accustomed  to  scan  long  distances  at  sea,  searched  the 
low-lying  clouds  for  another  glimpse  of  that  daring  avia- 
tor, playing  a  game  of  bo-peep  with  Mother  Earth. 

"  There  he  is  !  I  make  him  again  !"  cried  the  sea-cap- 
tain, as  that  dragon-fly  monoplane  darted  forth  from  be- 
hind another  screen  of  clouds,  exciting  the  spectators  by  a 
view  of  it  for  half-a-dozen  seconds,  then  teasingly  van- 
ished once  more,  while  the  bee-like  buzz  of  its  engine  was 
still  audible. 

"  Well,  if  that  isn't  the  greatest  thing  that  ever  hap- 
pened :  to  see  him  skylarking — really  skylarking — up  there 
in  the  clouds  !"  laughed  Blair.  "  I  think  it's  positively 
'spooky!'"  His  gaze  searched  those  gray  cloud-tents  for 
another  peep  at  the  invisible  winged  man — secreted  among 
them. 

"  Who  knows  but  he  may  be  camping  up  there  by'n-by : 
so  may  we  all  be,  for  that  matter !"  suggested  Quintin, 
blinking  as  if,  dazzled  by  the  prospect,  he  began  to  see  no 
limit  to  the  aerial  possibilities  of  man. 

"  Oh,  there's  nothing  small  about  you,"  Blair  threw 
back  at  him.  "  As  for  me,  I'd  be  satisfied  if  Harry  Desper 
would  only  take  us  up  aloft — one  at  a  time — on  an  air  trip  ! 
There  !  he's  not  playing  hide-and-seek  in  the  clouds  any 
longer,"  added  the  boy  excitedly.  "  He  has  dropped  lower 
— he's  flying  lower,  now." 

47 


48  HEROES   OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

"  I  guess  he  found  the  atmosphere  up  there  too  thick 
for  him,"  suggested  Captain  Andrew.  "  I'm  afraid  he's 
finding  the  air  pretty  gusty,  too;  it  keeps  breezing  up!" 
sniffing  the  freshening  wind. 

The  aeroplane  had  dropped  several  hundred  feet;  as  the 
aviator  glided  down  from  cloudland,  his  body,  between  those 
spreading  wings,  was  visible  to  the  thrilled  spectators. 

"  He's  turning !"  cried  Quintin,  suddenly.  "  I  guess  he's 
going  to  head  toward  shore  !  Perhaps  he'll  make  a  land- 
ing on  the  little  beach  here  !" 

Speechlessly  the  trio,  old  Captain  Andy  and  the  boys, 
watched  the  youthful  aviator  as  he  attempted  this  most 
dangerous  feat  in  his  whole  flight,  that  of  "  banking  at  a 
turn,"  when  his  tilting  monoplane,  turning  at  a  sharp 
angle,  would  drift  many  feet  in  the  air. 

Harry  Desper  had  performed  this  difficult  exploit  many 
times  before,  but  he  had  never  yet  flown  in  such  a  wind 
as  the  reviving  breeze  which  was  springing  up.  For  the 
gale  which  had  stirred  up  the  "  old  sea "  beneath  him, 
was  not  dead,  but  dozing. 

Right  on  the  turn,  a  hard  puff  of  wind,  such  as  Captain 
Andy  had  dreaded,  struck  his  forward  wings — those  main 
supporting  planes — and  tilted  the  flying  machine  to  a  dan- 
gerous position. 

He  dropped  through  the  air  like  a  shot. 

"  He's— going;  He's  f- falling  !  Oh  !  oh  !  oh-h  !  There 
— he  goes  !"  The  cries,  blending  into  one  shocked  wail, 
broke  from  the  old  man  and  boys. 

They  saw  Harry  Desper  beneath  those  dark  clouds 
among  which  he  had  been  sporting  a  few  minutes  before, 
make  a  desperate  attempt  to  right  his  machine,  to  control 
it,  and  recover  his  equilibrium. 

In  vain  !  Down  he  came — his  golden  triumph  collaps- 
ing !  The  falling  aeroplane  struck  the  ocean  in  the  center 
of  one  of  those  wide,  pale  circles  of  foam  left  by  the  recent 
storm. 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA.  49 

The  two  boys  and  Captain  Andy,  stiff  with  horror,  saw 
that  still  angry  old  sea  open  its  white-bearded  mouth  and 
swallow  Harry  Desper  writh  his  monoplane  as  completely 
as,  in  calmer  mood,  they  had  seen  it  swallow  the  diver. 

"  His  machine  has  carried  him  under  with  it.  But  he 
may — he  may  free  himself  and  come  to  the  surface !"  It 
was  Captain  Andy  who  broke  the  stony  silence  which  fell 
upon  the  three  watchers.  "  Oh  !  if  only  I  had  my  right 
arm  and  a  boat !"  cried  the  old  man  wildly.  "  There's  no 
boat  but  my  old  dory  and  I  don't  know  whether  she's 
seaworthy  !"  his  eyes  vainly  searching  sea  and  shore  for 
a  more  trusty  craft. 

Even  as  he  spoke,  he  was  limping,  with  all  the  hurry 
he  could  make,  toward  the  beach  and  that  doubtful  dory. 

"  If  only  I  could  hurry  as  I  once  could !"  he  cried 
again,  groaning  at  every  ten  steps,  not  because  of  the 
pain  which  the  attempt  at  speed  caused  in  his  right  leg, 
which,  with  the  right  arm,  had  been  broken  in  that  acci- 
dent a  few  months  before,  neither  having  mended  proper- 
ly yet,  but  because  every  second's  delay  lessened  the 
chance  of  rescue  for  the  submerged  aviator. 

If  a  rescue  could" be  made? 

Of  a  sudden,  the  impotent  groan  ceased  on  the  old  sea- 
captain's  lip. 

Something  shot  swiftly  past  him,  making  such  a  vivid 
spot  of  color  against  the  grayness  of  sea  and  sky  (so 
much  darker  since  the  accident),  that,  irresistibly,  it  shot 
a  thin  streak  of  rosy  hope  through  Captain  Andy's 
despair. 

It  was  Blair  Hammond's  crimson  sweater;  the  iden- 
tical sweater,  shrunken  an  inch  by  watery  vicissitudes, 
which  he  wore  when  he  foolishly  tempted  danger  and 
Jewett's  bull  on  the  disused  golf  links. 

The  boy's  face  was  red,  too,  congested  by  shock  !  The 
eyelids  and  lips  trembled  as  if  facing  a  pinching  gust. 
But  in  his  eyes,  as  he  glanced  backward  over  his  crimson 


50  HEROES    OF   AIR   AXD    SEA. 

shoulder,  was  a  staggering  light  of  courage  and  resolu- 
tion that  fairly  shone. 

"Quin!"  he  cried,  "we  can  get  that  dory  out  faster 
than  Cap'n  Andy  can.  He  can't  row  fast  because  of  his 
right  arm  and  we  can  !" 

Quintin  was  already  at  his  heels,  fired  by  the  same 
thought. 

Slighting  the  roundabout  pathway  where  Captain  Andy 
was  straining  in  a  stiff  attempt  at  speed,  the  two  boys 
leaped,  like  goats,  from  crag  to  crag,  and  ledge  to  ledge, 
downward  over  a  stretch  of  ragged  rocks  that  separated 
them  from  the  narrow  beach. 

"  Boys  !  Boys  !"  Captain  Andy's  cry  rang  after  them. 
"  I  don't  know  whether  that  dory  is  seaworthy  or  not. 
Harry  mayn't  come  to  the  surface.  And  that  old  sea  for 
you  to  face  !  Her  oars  are  in  her,  boys  !"  he  added,  torn 
between  an  anguish  of  longing  to  save  the  aviator  and 
terror  for  the  two  lads  rushing  to  breast  the  sullen  swell 
of  the  sea  in  a  doubtful  boat. 

If  the  lads  heard  they  paid  no  heed,  for,  now,  a 
whooping  cry  broke  from  Blair  whose  eyes — turned  sea- 
ward as  he  ran — were  riveted  on  triat  spot  of  heaving 
ocean  within  the  pale  ring  of  foam,  which  had  swallowed 
Harry  Desper  and  his  monoplane. 

"There  he  is!"  cried  the  boy.  "There's — his  head! 
And  his  hands  up  !     He's  come  to  the  surface !" 

With  the  sight  of  those  hands  appealing  to  them — 
though  they  disappeared  instantly  as  the  aviator  went 
under  again — nothing  could  hold  the  two  lads  back  from 
an  attempt  to  save  him. 

Captain  Andy  ceased  to  shout  discouragement,  too. 
He.  also,  had  momentarily  seen  the  youthful  aviator's 
head,  like  a  black  ball,  on  the  crest  of  a  tumbling  wave, 
and  those  upflung  arms  praying  for  help,  with  a  cry 
whose  faint  echo  reached  the  shore. 

"There's  Harry!    There's  the  lad!"  yelled  the  old  sea- 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA.  51 

man.  "  Oh,  if  only  he  can  keep  afloat  until  the  boys 
reach  him!     Oh,  if  only  they  had  an  able  boat!" 

"  As  a  boy,  Harry  was  a  star  swimmer,"  he  told  him- 
self in  a  stifled  mumble.  "  But  he  can't  swim  much  in 
that  rough  water,  hampered  by  his  clothes  and  leathers 
and  that  old  sea  slapping  him  in  the  mouth,  and  shutting 
his  breath  off !" 

But  there  was  no  "  able  boat."  And  even  at  this  mo- 
ment the  two  boys,  in  whom  hope  joined  hands  with  hero- 
ism, now  that  they  had  seen  the  aviator's  head,  and  ap- 
pealing hands,  were  severing  the  mooring-line  that 
secured  the  aged  dory,  with  two  quick  slashes  of  Blair's 
pocketknife,  and  shoving  her  off  into  the  surf,  breaking 
wildly  in  the  little  cove. 

"  Oh  !  she's  such  an  old  tub;  we  can't  make  her  fly  fast. 
One  might  as  well  put  to  sea  in  a  shoe-box!"  groaned 
Quintin. 

"  All  the  same,  we've  got  to  make  her  go ;  we've  got 
to  save  him  !"  Blair's  words  were  drowned  in  the  spray 
slapping  him  in  the  face  as,  splashing  through  the  foamy 
surf,  he  took  his  place  in  the  boat,  and  started  to  row, 
with  all  the  developed  strength  and  skill  which  recent 
practice  had  given  to  his  arms. 

Quintin's  rowing  equaled  his  swimming.  It  was  not 
the  first  time  that  he  had  put  off  through  a  rough  sea, 
to  rescue  a  drowning  man.  But  his  previous  experiences 
had  been  in  company  with  some  mature  life-saver  and  in 
a  boat  whose  strength  and  speed  could  be  trusted. 

It  was  a  different  matter  to  fight  the  towering  swell  of 
the  sullen  sea  in  this  old  dory. 

"  We're — making  her  go  just  the — same  !"  he  gasped, 
panting  with  rowing,  as  if  answering  his  own  thoughts 
aloud.  "  We — we'll  be  at  him  in  ten  minutes — if  he  can 
only  keep  afloat !  Whoo  !  there's  a  big  one  coming,"  with 
a  glance  over  his  shoulder  at  a  great  white-headed  wave, 
rearing  upward  into  a  towering  curl  as  it  advanced  upon 


52  HEROES    OF  AIR   AND   SEA. 

the  struggling  little  boat,  as  if  to  trample  and  swallow  her. 

Both  boys  set  their  teeth,  feeling  through  all  their 
straining  bodies  that  it  might  prove  too  much  for  their  old 
boat. 

But  the  "  big  one  "  broke  before  it  reached  them.  The 
boat  was  caught  in  its  curl,  lifted  high,  swept  nearer  to 
the  struggling  aviator. 

"  He's  on  top — still.  I  can  see — his — head,"  Blair 
coughed  out  the  words  presently,  with  a  glance  over  his 
ruddy  shoulder,  drenched  now  with  spray,  as  he  bent  to 
the  oar.  "  Here's  another,  the  size  of  a  house — pushing 
its  white  comb  along !"  he  panted  in  the  next  breath,  as 
again  a  white-crested  comber  swept  towards  them,  as 
if  bent  on  annihilating  the  rescuing  dory. 

Captain  Andy  had  clambered  painfully  to  a  tall  rock, 
whence  he  could  watch  for  glimpses  of  Harry  Desper's 
head  and  for  those  appealing  arms,  thrown  aloft  for  a 
second  amid  the  tumble  of  sea — Captain  Andy  held  his 
breath. 

"  They're  brave  boys,"  he  gasped.  "  If  only  they  had  a 
better  boat !  Oh  !  if  she  should  wash  to  pieces  under 
them?"  with  his  eyes  on  the  buffeted  dory. 

But  the  once  sturdy  little  rowboat  seemed  like  a  human 
creature,  realizing  that  she  had  done  fine  service  in  her 
day,  had  saved  other  drowning  people,  and  that  the  last 
feat  which  mankind  asked  of  her  was  that  she  should  res- 
cue this  youthful  aviator,  who  had  fished  from  her  many 
a  morning  before  he  dreamed  of  navigating  an  airship 
and  having  his  name  known  over  the  country. 

She  creaked  in  every  plank,  racked  by  the  boys'  furious 
rowing,  like  a  thing  in  pain.  But  she  breasted  that  big 
comber  grandly.  It  tossed  her  high,  lifted  her  bow  out 
of  water,  and  tried  to  trip  her;  but  Quintin  was  accus- 
tomed to  managing  a  rowboat  in  a  rough  sea,  and  Blair 
had  had  practice  lately :  the  dory  held  her  own,  and  rode 
triumphantly  on  the  great  wave's  back ! 


BOTH    BOYS    SET    THEIR    TEETH, 

FEELING    THAT    THE    NEXT 

WOULD   PROVE   TOO    MUCH 

FOR   THE   OLD   DORY. 


53 


54  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

"  I  thought  that  comber  would  trip  her ;  I  thought 
'twould  roll  her  over  like  a  chip !"  murmured  Captain 
Andy,  feeling  as  if  there  were  a  heaving  sea  within  him- 
self. "  But  she's  holding  her  own ;  she's  making  good. 
And  Harry  is  on  top  still !     He's  swimming  towards  her. 

"  That  dory  is  certainly  behaving  herself.  Those  boys 
are  setting  their  teeth  and  driving  her  for  all  she's  worth," 
he  told  himself,  a  minute  later,  with  his  eyes  on  Blair's 
red  sweater — still  like  a  rosy  spot  of  hope  amid  the  foamy 
tumble  of  sea. 

The  old  man's  gaze  turned  upward  a  moment;  a  prayer 
quivered  on  his  lips.  Then' he  shouted  encouragement  to 
the  rowers — advice  which  failed  to  reach  them. 

"  Take  it  easy,  boys  !  Don't  get  excited  !  Keep  cool — ■ 
and  you'll  land  him  yet !"  he  cried  in  his  gusty,  far-carry- 
ing voice,  trained  to  travel  distances  at  sea. 

And  then  to  the  swimming  aviator,  having  hard  work  to 
keep  his  chin  out  of  water  amid  those  foamy  water  hills — 
trammeled  by  the  clothing  he  wore  in  the  air —  with  that 
old  sea  stealing  up  his  nostrils  and  into  his  mouth,  trying 
to  choke  his  breath  off: 

"  Keep  cool,  Harry  !  Hang  on  !  Keep  up  !  Those 
boys'll  get  you  !  They'll  reach  you  in  a  minute  with  the 
boat !"  he  shouted. 

They  did  reach  him — fighting  inch  by  inch  the  ocean. 
But  now  came  the  worst  test  for  them,  for  the  dory,  and 
for  Captain  Andy,  straining  his  eyes  to  watch  them,  and 
feeling  his  own  inactivity  as  keenly  as  the  boys  had  felt 
theirs  when  the  diver  was  "  caught  below." 

"  Can  they  land  him?  Can  they  get  him  aboard,  with- 
out capsizing  her?"  the  old  seaman  asked  himself,  tortured 
by  anxiety.  If  only  I  were  with  them  !  But  Quin  knows 
how  to  rescue  a  drowning  man ;  he's  helped  me  do  it  be- 
fore.    And  Harry  wouldn't  lose  his  head  !" 

However,  that  flat-bottomed  dory,  despite  its  age,  was 
hard  to  capsize.     One  racking  minute !     Captain  Andrew 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  55 

drew  his  breath  like  a  stepladder,  whose  every  rung  was 
a  gasp  of  suspense.     Then  he  broke  into  a  cry: 

"  Bravo !  They've  landed  him,  so  far.  They've  got 
him  into  the  boat.  Those  boys  are  — crackajacks  !"  as 
the  brave  old  boat  headed  back  toward  shore,  with  a  third 
figure,  that  of  Harry  Desper,  in  her  stern. 

But  the  fight  was  not  over. 

There  were  other  "  big  ones,"  great  waves,  to  grapple 
with.  But,  now,  these,  as  they  "  shoved  their  white  combs 
along,"  swept  the  dory  shoreward,  too;  for  the  incoming 
tide  was  in  her  favor. 

Once  the  giant  push  of  the  old  sea  was  too  great.  She 
disappeared  altogether  in  the  embrace  of  a  wave — went 
down  into  a  foamy  hollow  !  The  light  which  was  flicker- 
ing again  in  Captain  Andy's  eye  was  blown  out,  as  by  a 
cruel  gust. 

"  She — she's  gone  !  The  sea's  got  her !"  he  cried,  tot- 
tering where  he   stood. 

But  once  more,  the  dory,  dripping  from  stem  to  stern, 
reappeared :  that  vivid  blotch  of  color  and  spot  of  hope, 
Blair's  sweater,  rose  above  the  foam. 

"She's  on  top  still!"  cried  the  old  man.  "If — if  the 
Lord  hadn't  been  with  them,  she  wouldn't  have  come  up 
again,  that  time  !" 

Sure  in  faith  that  "  the  Lord  would  be  with  them " 
still,  and  bring  those  brave  boys,  with  the  aviator  whom 
they  had  rescued,  safe  to  shore,  Captain  Andy  dropped 
from  his  rock,  limped,  with  all  the  speed  he  could  make, 
to  where  the  sea  broke  on  the  narrow  beach,  and  plunged 
knee-deep  into  the  surf,  standing  by  to  grasp  the  dory's 
bow  directly  it  should  come  within  reach. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Air  Race. 

WHEN  the  boys,  Blair  and  Quintin — followed  by  the 
rescued  aviator — leaped  from  the  dory,  and,  splash- 
ing through  the  surf  breaking  in  the  little  cove, 
waded  ashore,  they  found,  not  Captain  Andy  only,  but 
a  small  crowd  of  men,  women  and  boys,  waiting  to  wel- 
come them.  For  the  aviator's  flight  and  the  accident  to 
the  aeroplane  had  been  witnessed  from  more  distant  spots 
along  the  shore. 

The  news  had  spread.  Two  little  steam  launches  came 
panting  up,  ere  the  dory  reached  the  beach,  and  among 
the  greeting  throng  was  Captain  Jim,  the  diver,  whose 
injured  leg  was  so  far  recovered  that  he  could  now  hobble 
about. 

"  So  they  got  you,  Harry,  my  boy !"  said  Captain  Andy, 
as  the  aviator,  a  strange  spectacle  in  his  dripping  leathers, 
leaned,  exhausted,  against  a  tall  bowlder.  "  Those  boys 
landed  you,  all  right !  I  never  saw  lads  of  their  age  row 
as  they  did.     They  made  that  old  dory  stretch  herself." 

He  pointed  exultingly  to  Blair  and  Quintin  squatted  on 
the  sands  in  two  breathless  heaps,  with  their  aching  arms 
hugging  their  knees  and  feeling  as  if  their  hearts  creaked, 
like  the  dory's  planks,  from  the  strain  they  had  endured. 

"  Yes,  they  got  me;  they  saved  my  life,"  returned  Harry 
Desper  gaspingly.  "  I — couldn't — have  kept  up  until  one 
of  the  steam  launches — reached  me.  I  couldn't  have  kept 
afloat— another  minute.  My  machine  dragged  me  under," 
thinking  sadly  of  the  submerged  monoplane.  "  And  I  had 
hard  work — to  disengage  myself." 

"Boys!"  he  added,  after  a  minute  or  two,  recovering 

56 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA.  57 

from  the  effects  of  that  submerged  struggle  and  his  fight 
with  the  sea.  "  Boys !"  with  a  half-choked  little  laugh, 
"  /  take  it  all  back." 

"Take  what  back?"  Blair,  purring  like  a  grampus,  lifted 
one  eye  from  his  breathless  study  of  the  defeated  sea. 

"  I  take  back  the  charge  I  brought  against  you — be- 
cause of  the  diver's  raft — that  you  couldn't  '  keep  your 
heads '  and  show  presence  of  mind  in  an  emergency !" 
returned  Harry  Desper,  his  laugh  coming  freer.  "  If  ever 
I  take  any  passengers  aloft  with  me  on  my  aeroplane,  it 
will  be  you  two — one  at  a  time,  of  course  !" 

"  Your  aeroplane — is  gone."  It  was  Quintin  who  spoke 
breathlessly  now.     "How  about  that  coming  air-race?" 

"  Yes,  isn't  it  too  bad  that  I  lost  my  machine,  with  the 
race  so  near?"  The  aviator  looked  reproachfully  at  the 
sea  which  had  robbed  him.  "  But  this  breeze  is  the  worst 
wind  I  ever  flew  in  !"  he  added,  apologizing  for  his  acci- 
dent, while  the  said  breeze  stirred  the  hair  plastered  to  his 
boyish  forehead. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?"  asked  Captain 
Jim,  the  "  Etna's  "  master. 

"  Why,  I  think  I'll  send  word  at  once  to  the  aeronautic 
factory  for  another  monoplane  of  the  same  type,  and  enter 
the  race  just  the  same,"  was  Harry's  reply. 

A  hearty  cheer  greeted  this  answer. 

"  Then  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do,"  Captain  Jim  turned  to 
the  small  throng  about  him.  "I'll  run  the  'Etna'  round 
to  Boston  Harbor  that  day.  As  many  of  you  as  like  can 
come  on  her.  And  we'll  watch  the  air-race  from  the 
water." 

"Can  we  be  of  the  party?"  asked  Blair. 

"Well,  I  should  think  so,"  returned  the  "Etna's"  cap- 
tain with  a  broad  smile.  "  Why,  you  boys  will  be  the 
topnotch,  the  guests  of  honor !  You  saved  the  aviator's 
life." 

"  I    couldn't    have    done    that    two    months   ago,"    mur- 


58  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND   SEA. 

mured  Blair,  speaking  low  and  breathlessly,  as  if  to  him- 
self. "  I'd  have  wanted  to — badly — but  I  couldn't  have 
done  it." 

"  What  did  I  tell  you,  lad  ?"  Captain  Andy  bent  to  the 
boy's  ear.  "  Didn't  I  say  that  a  time  would  come  when 
you'd  want  to  help  somebody  else  more  than  you  ever 
wanted  to  help  yourself,  and  that  if  you  failed  to  make 
the  most  of  your  powers,  you  wouldn't  be  'in  it '  when 
that  big  minute  came  ?  You'll  find  the  same  thing  true  as 
regards  your  school  work  and  growth  in  other  ways. 

"  We'll  all  go  on  the  '  Etna,'  added  the  old  sea-captain 
in  louder  tones.  "  And  I'll  tell  you  what;  we'll  take  along 
my  best  binoculars ;  I  guess,  with  their  help,  we'll  be 
able  to  distinguish  the  number  on  the  rudder  of  an  aero- 
plane— unless  the  bird-men  are  flying  very  high  indeed — 
and  tell  who's  winning !" 

"  What,  gran'father !  those  splendid  marine  glasses 
which  were  presented  to  you  two  years  ago,  for  saving 
the  crew  of  that  Canadian  steamer,  in  your  fishing  ves- 
sel?" cried  Quintin  in  amazement.  "  He's  so  proud  of 
those  '  presentation  binoculars  '  that  he  has  kept  them  on 
exhibition  in  his  parlor  and  never  used  them  !"  whispered 
the  grandson  in  Blair's  ear. 

Captain  Andy  nodded  his  gray  head. 

I  guess  we  have,  at  last,  found  a  fitting  occasion  to 
make  use  of  those  fine  binoculars — by  seeing  the  air-race 
through  them,"  answered  the  old  sea-conqueror. 

And  so  it  happened  that  a  week  later  the  tugboat 
"  Etna,"  with  a  merry  sight-seeing  party  aboard,  steamed 
round  to  the  entrance  of  Boston  Harbor,  and  hove  to  at  a 
little  distance  from  Boston  Light — the  tall  lighthouse 
tower,  whose  red  eye  gleams  at  night,  at  the  entrance  to 
that  historic  harbor. 

"  The  air-men  aren't  due  to  round  the  Light  before  one 
o'clock.  It's  only  half-past  twelve  now;  so  we're  in  good 
time  to  see  them,"  said  Captain  Jim,  descending  from  the 


HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA.  59 

crystal-paneled  pilot-house  of  his  tugboat.  "  The  aviator 
who  is  leading  on  the  first  'leg'  of  the  race  out  to  the 
Light,  will  probably  win — unless  some  accident  happens 
to  his  machine  on  the  return  flight  to  Boston." 

"  Oh !  I  simply  can't  wait  to  see  them  and  find  out 
whether  Harry  'Desper  is  winning !"  cried  Blair,  who, 
with  Quintin,  was  quite  unable  to  keep  still;  both  boys 
feeling  that  if  the  leading  flying-machine  should  be  a 
monoplane — and  a  great  black  9,  the  number  on  the  glit- 
tering rudder — they,  by  their  rescue  of  Harry  Desper 
from  a  watery  grave,  would  have  a  share  in  the  winning 
of  this  world-stirring  race. 

"  Here  comes  gran'father,  with  those  grand  binoculars  !" 
cried  Quintin,  as  Captain  Andy  approached  the  group  on 
the  main  deck,  a  handsome  leather  case  in  his  hand,  from 
which  he  drew  a  superb  pair  of  marine  glasses,  the  re- 
ward of  one  of  the  many  deeds  of  heroism  during  his  sea- 
faring life. 

"  Well,  I  guess  we  can  see  the  men-birds  through  them 
all  right !"  laughed  Blair  admiringly. 

It  was  nearly  an  hour  later,  punctuality  not  being  a  vir- 
tue of  the  air-race  as  yet,  that  Captain  Andrew,  search- 
ing the  sky-line  through  those  magnifying  glasses,  gave 
a  welcoming  cry. 

"  Here  they  come  !  Here's  one  of  them  !  It's  a  mono- 
plane/' he  announced  in  a  breeze  of  excitement,  sighting 
on  the  horizon  a  seagull-like  speck,  which  developed 
rapidly  into  the  beautiful  aerial  dragon  fly — the  type  of 
aeroplane  which  the  boys  had  learned  to  know  so  well. 

"Let  us  see!     Let  its  sec!"  they  cried  wildly. 

Captain  Andy  handed  the  glasses  to  Blair,  and  Blair  to 
Quintin;  each  could  view  it  plainly  above  a  point  of  sea 
many  miles  off,  that  air-conquering  dragon  leading  the 
race  ! 

"  I'm  sure  it's  Desper's  monoplane !  I'm  sure  Harry 
Desper  is  leading!"  they  shouted  in  a  delirum  of  excite- 


60  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

ment,  as  they  returned  the  glasses  to  the  old  sea-captain 
— feeling  that  he  ought  to  make  early  use  of  his  own  gift 
presented  by  a  grateful  Government  by  viewing  the  air- 
race  through  them. 

Other  marine  glasses  there  were,  and  magnifying  glasses 
of  every  description,  rapidly  passing  from  hand  to  hand 
among  the  pleasure  party  on  the  "  Etna's "  main  deck. 
Captain  Jim  was  studying  the  sky  through  his  own  par- 
ticular pair. 

But  the  swiftly  skimming  monoplane  could  now  be 
plainly  seen  by  the  naked  eye,  sailing  some  fifteen  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea. 

"Doesn't  it  look  proud,  skimming  along  up  there?  It 
seems  to  be  telling  the  sea  gulls  that  they're  beaten  at  their 
own  game  of  flying,"  suggested  Quintin,  with  a  laugh. 

"  Proud  "  it  did  look  !  Most  wonderful !  Most  beauti- 
ful !  Man's  bird-challenging  triumph  !  So  the  victorious 
dragon  fly,  leading  on  the  first  "  leg  "  of  the  race,  circled 
round  the  gray  old  lighthouse  tower,  but  high  above  it — 
high,  high  above  the  outdone  seabirds  wheeling  about 
that  stone  tower  ! 

"  Can  you  see  the  number — the  number  on  the  rudder, 
Captain  Andy?"  cried  Blair,  his  heart  fluttering  between 
his  parted  lips. 

Captain  Andrew  silently  handed  the  glasses  to  him,  as 
if  he  felt  that  the  boys  who  had  rescued  the  aviator  should 
be  the  ones  to  proclaim  his  triumph,  so  far,  to  the  excited 
throng  on  that  main  deck;  the  weather-beaten  tan  of  the 
old  man's  face  shone  golden ;  his  eyes  glistened. 

And  Blair,  looking  through  those  presentation  glasses, 
emitted  a  joy-whoop  that  rent  the  air. 

"  The  number  on  the  rudder  is  '  9  ' !"  he  proclaimed  to 
the  deck.  "  It's  Desper's  monoplane.  Harry  Despcr  is 
leading!"  and  he  handed  the  powerful  glasses  to  Quintin, 

It  seemed  as  if  the  very  deck  itself  took  part  in  the 
cheering    that    followed;    certainly    it    did    through    the 


61 


62  HEROES    OF   AIR   AND    SEA. 

stamping  and  shuffling  of  excited  feet  upon  it.  Applause 
rainbowed  the  air  that  bore  the  winning  aviator  back  to 
Boston — and  victory  ! 

High  and  clear  rose  a  chorus  of  cheers,  as  if  to  sup- 
port him  on  his  return  flight;  the  boys  who  had  saved 
him,  having  the  loudest  and  the  final  crow;  while  the 
engineer  of  the  tugboat,  who  had  been  watching,  too, 
made  for  his  engine-room,  and  blew  off  three  shrill  blasts 
of  the  "  Etna's "  steam  whistle,  then  another  whistling 
triplet,  and  another;  giving  the  winning  man-bird  "three 
times  three  "  with  a  vengeance,  until  it  seemed  as  if  the 
"  Etna  "  would  really  burst  her  steel  throat ! 

Every  other  tugboat  and  steam  launch  in  the  harbor 
took  up  the  whistling,  too,  and  a  little  later  came  another 
sky-wonder,  a  beautiful  biplane,  looking  more  like  a  great 
white  bird  as  it  circled  above  the  gray  tower  than  did 
the  dragon-fly  monoplane. 

But  the  climax  of  that  glorious  day  came  some  hours 
later  when  the  tugboat  "  Etna "  was  lying  by  a  Boston 
wharf,  and  a  taxicab  whirled  on  to  that  wharf. 

Harry  Desper  sprang  out.  "  I  managed  to  get  away 
from  the  judges  and  the  crowd  at  the  aviation  field,"  he 
said,  jumping  onto  the  "  Etna's  "  deck.  "  I  told  them  that 
I  wanted  to  meet  some  old  friends  and  the  boys  who  had 
rescued  me  when  I  fell  into  the  water.''  -r 

As  the  admiring  throng  gathered  round  him,  one  old 
gentleman  of  the  party,  moved  by  a  sudden  inspiration, 
exclaimed : 

"  I  propose  three  cheers  for  the  hero  of  the  air — and 
three  more  for  the  heroes  of  the  sea  !"  he  nodded  toward 
Captain  Andy  and  Captain  Jim. 

Never  were  cheers  given  with  a  better  will. 

When  the  joyous  tumult  had  subsided.  Harry  Desper 
stepped  forward. 

"  I  thank  you,  friends  !"  he  said.     "  And,  now,  I  want  «L 
to  propose  three  cheers  for  the  two  boys  who  saved  the 


HEROES    OF   AIR    AND    SEA. 


63 


aviator's  life.  I  think  they  proved  themselves  heroes  of 
the  deep  all  right,  when  they  faced  the  swell  of  that  old 
sea  in  a  worn-out  boat  to  rescue  me.  Perhaps  they'll 
be  heroes  of  the  air  some  day,  when  I  take  them  aloft,  as 
passengers." 

Enthusiastically  the  applause  broke  forth  again,  while 
the  boys  chimed  in  and  cheered  themselves,  on  the  pros- 
pect of  that  future  air  trip,  to  the  amusement  of  every- 
body else,  until  wharf  and  tugboat  rang  with  the  music  of 
glad  hearts. 


The  End. 


63 


',■■; 


